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AUTHOR: 


GRIEVE,  LUCIA 

CATHERINE  GRAEME 


TITLE: 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN 

ATTIC  TRAGEDY  ... 

PLACE: 

NEW  YORK 

DA  TE : 

1898 


•V 


Master  Negative  # 


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PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 


V-  i 


BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


Original  Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliographic  Record 


I 


880^129 
G87 


Grieve,  Lada  Catherine  Graeme,  1862- 

Death  and  burial  in  Attic  tragedy.    Part  i.  Death  and 
the  dead  ...    New  York,  1898. 

I  83  p.  24r. 

Thesis  (ph.  d.) — Columbia  university. 

Vita. 
^^/^^    ^«^     Bibliography:  p.  10-12. 
D000,lg9       ^  /  1^ 

^^f^  -€opy-in-Cla88ic8- 

L376.7CX0     Another  copy.      1598. 
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DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  AHIC  TRAGEDY 


PART  I 
DEATH  AND  THE  DEAD 


BY 


LUCIA  CATHERINE  GRAEME  GRIEVE,  A.  M. 


SUBMITTED   IN   PARTIAL   FULFILMENT   OF   THE   REQUIREMENTS 
FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  0^  PHILOSOPHY 

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PART  I 
DEATH  AND  THE  DEAD 


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LUCIA  CATHERINE  GRAEME  GRIEVE,  A.  M. 


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SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE   REQUIREMENTS 
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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

Introduction 7 

Bibliography lo 

CHAPTER  I.    Views  Regarding  Death  . 13 

Universality  of  death.  Stability  of  burial  customs.  To  the  Greeks  death 
was  dark,  unavoidable,  fated,  calamitous ;  at  times,  desired  and  welcomed ; 
a  separation  from   friends.     Farewells  to  nature.     Bad   luck  in  name  of 

death,  in  representations  and  imitations;  in  dreams  of  death;  in  uninten- 
tional homicide.  Superstition  regarding  gifts  from  enemies.  Philosophic 
views  of  the  Tragedians;  ai'^r^p;  the  Eleusinian  teachings,  rewards  for 
initiated,  punishment  for  uninitiated  and  mockers;  Kaufmann's  view; 
Eleusinian  tone  of  tomb  inscriptions.     Death  full  of  uncertainties. 

CHAPTER  n.    Condition  and  Powers  of  the  Dead 33 

The  soul,  according  to  Homer  ;  its  size ;  its  mode  of  departure  ;  its  un- 
substantiality.     Ghosts;    frequent   in    Greek   story;    various    sorts;    cloud- 

images;   apparitions;  phantoms  in  dreams.    Stage  ghosts.    Ghosts  of 

murderers  ;  of  animals.  Stories  in  Pausanias.  Resurrection  ;  transforma- 
tion ;  transmigration ;  plurality  of  souls ;  external  soul.  Consciousness  of 
the  dead ;  readiness  for  vengeance;  power  over  dreams,  and  gift  of  prophecy. 
Life  in  Hades  a  continuation  of  life  on  earth,  in  occupation,  character,  mis- 
fortunes.  Influence  on  the  future  life  of  the  present,  of  burial  rites,  of 
initiation,  of  a  good  life.     Immortality  of  the  souU 

CHAPTER  III.    The  Other  World  and  Those  Who  Dwelt  There  .    53 

The  journey  of  the  soul.    On  wings ;  Nike-Eros ;  the  butterfly.    Charon, 

unknown  to  Homer ;  a  popular  myth.    The  ship.    Charon  in  Euripides. 

5]  s 


I 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  [6 

Hermes,  god  of  sleep  and  of  death  ;  the  Chthonian  and  the  Olympian  god. 
Death  a  journey  by  land ;  with  horses.  Marriage  of  the  soul  to  Hades ; 
testimony  of  the  vases  and  stelae,  of  the  Tragedians,  of  the  inscriptions ;  the 
Apulian  amphorae.  Persephone.  Thanatos,  double  of  Hermes,  a  myth- 
god,  the  physician;  in  the  Alcestis ;  an  epichthonian  deity.  Offices  of 
Thanatos,  Hermes  and  Charon.  Hades,  true  god  of  the  lower  world  ;  re- 
ceiver of  the  dead ;  judge  ;  in  Homer ;  in  Tragedy.    Realm  of  Hades ; 

underground  or  in  the  west  ;  unattractive  ;  descriptions.  Tartarus  ;  future 
punishments  and  rewards.  Isles  of  the  blest.  The  dog.  Other  dwellers 
in  Erebus.  Hecate.  Erinyes  j  described  by  the  Tragedians  ;  their  func- 
tion as  avengers  ;  their  Grove  at  Athens ;  their  cult. 


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INTRODUCTION 

Ancient  Greek  life  was  divided  into  so  many  small  separate 
streams,  and  developed  so  rapidly  towards  both  its  perfection 
and  its  decay,  that  very  few  statements  can  be  true  either  of 
the  whole  people  or  of  the  whole  period.  While  undoubtedly 
many  customs  survived  through  centuries,  at  the  same  time 
fashions  changed  from  generation  to  generation  in  even  the 
most  important  points;  the  contact  with  outside  i?ations,  the 
introduction  of  foreign  religions,  and  the  experience  of  new 

forms    of  government,    radically   and    continually    affected 

thought  and  life  throughout  the  entire  nation.  Besides,  though 
homogeneous  in  race,  and  to  a  certain  extent  in  language,  the 
Greeks  were  far  from  being  so  in  any  other  respect.  In  the 
separate  states,  the  development  was  remarkably  uneven,  in- 
dividualism was  the  most  striking  characteristic,  and  every 
city  and  hamlet  prided  itself  on  legends  and  practices  pecu- 
liarly its  own. 

The  study  of  Greek  life,  to  be  properly  understood,  should 

be  taken  up  country  by  country  and  period  by  period.  Here- 
tofore this  has  not  been  possible ;  now,  with  the  multitudes  of 
inscriptions  of  all  sorts  coming  daily  to  the  surface,  with  the 
works  of  long-lost  authors,  vases  and  gems,  temples  and 
palaces,  perpetually  unearthed,  we  may  hope  ultimately  for  a 
fairly  intelligible  reconstruction  of  the  daily  life  and  feeling  of 
that  great  race  to  whom  we  owe  the  best  of  our  culture  and 
the  greater  part  of  our  civilization. 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  attempted  to  touch  but  one 

phase  of  that  multitudinous  life,  the  ideas  regarding  death,  in 
but  one  city  and  age,  the  Vth  century  at  Athens.  Convinced 
that  the  later  writers,  like  Lucian,  were  not  to  be  depended 

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8 


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on.  for  the  Greeks  had  no  true  archaeological  sense,  I  went  to 
thoJH:  confcswrd  rcflcctonj  of  daily  life,  the  three  great  Tragc- 
dian!(.  To  be  sure,  but  a  .small  portion  of  their  works  remains 
to  us,  but  from  what  is  le(^,  many  stray  facts  can  be  gleaned, 
which,  if  placed  together  in  the  light  we  now  have  from 

archaN>logic:i]  HourccH,  give  i^mc  t3cii  of  what  was  in  the 
popular  mind  of  that  day. 

Aristophanes  also  throws  some  light  on  these  *ubject«,  but 
his  uncurt>cd  love  of  burlesque  makes  him,  in  the  pft::ient  state 
of  our  knowledge,  unsafe  as  a  g\nde-  Similarly  Plato,  because 
of  his  pla>'fu1  cxa^eration  when  5]x:aking  of  popular  notions, 
and  the  large  infusion  of  his  own  fancies  into  what  he  com- 
mends, is  not  generally  to  be  trustc<!.  Demosthenes  and  the 
Other  orators,  living  in  the  IVth  ccnturj^  under  entirely  differ- 
ent conditions^  arc  of  but  little  u»c  for  our  present  purpose. 
It  is  othenvLsc  with  Hom<:r;  though  l>ctonging  to  an  age 
grown  legendary,  he  remained  a  sort  of  standard  to  which 
many  things  were  referred ;  aside  from  that,  through  the  large 
familiarity  with  his  works  possessed  by  every  educated  man 
in  Athens,  his  influence  must  have  been  ver>'  great  in  shaping 
and  directing  thought  To  Pausanias  also  I  have  often  re- 
ferred ;  for  he  was  by  nature  and  aflfinity  an  antiquarian,  and, 

unlike  Lucian.  sincere  and  earnest,  preserving  many  valuable 
details,  and  if  sometimef;  mistaken,  not  so  through  any  fault 
of  his  own.  Fragments  of  the  Tragedians,  being  often 
but  short  quotations  and  frequently  wholly  ckitached  from 
their  context,  I  have  in  general  avoided  as  untrustworthy  to 
settle  a  disputed  point,  and  have  used  only  to  express  more 
tersely  or  in  better  language  ideas  found  somewhere  else ;  but 

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the  influence,  especially  of  Euriptdw. beginning  in  this  Vth  ccn- 
tur>'.  wxs  long  the  dominant  tradition.  Sejjulchral  inscripUons 
were  rare  in  this  centuiy.  and  the  tradition  running  through 
those  of  succeeding  ages  was,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  later 
begmning,  so  that  I  have  u>«d  them  but  sparingly.    The  *maU 

but  excellent  treatises  of  Kaufmann  and  Iwanowitsch  have  been 

<>i  much  u>e  fo  n>c;  the  former  especially  in  throwing  light  OH 
tJM,  influence  of  the  Mysteries.  Tl.e  latter  came  into  my  hands 
just  a«  my  work  waa  about  completed ;  had  I  known  before  of 
the  existence  of  this  exlwustive  study.  I  might  have  hcitated 
to  attempt  anythioB  on  a  »ubject  so  nearly  the  same.  As  it  is 
excejit  where  he  has  formed  hin  atatetncnts  o«i  fragmentarj^ 
evidence  or  by  recasting  troublesome  tcjits,  wherever  ow 
paths  lay  toeether  we  have  arrived  independently  at  substan- 
tially the  same  conclusions.    Rohde'*  brillant  work  wa. « i;,tie 

disappoUjting  for  thi.i  period.  #incc  he  draws  ver,'  larRcly  on  late 
authors.  After  goinc  through  Homer  carefully  myself  and 
drawrag  my  own  conclusions.  I  found  BudihoU  ao  complete 
and  overflowing  and  pcrfcctl>-  sane,  that  I  have  preferred  citing 
his  page*  rather  Uian  entering  into  ai>y  dlBCu«».on»  of  my  own 
Prot  Percy  Gardner's  works  have  been  of  capeciaJ  value  to  mo. 
more  pamcularly  when  supplemented. «.  they  were  CiMiHnunlly. 
by  kindly  adWoe  and  criticism  on  my  own  work  during  a  veif 

spent  m  Oxford:  and  I  taVr  .his  op,H..,„,.„y  .„,.,»««,  tO  hl.« 
the  gratitude  I  frcl. 

Thanks  are  due  to  ProtE.  D.  Perry I  l-mf  J.  U.  wi.eeJcf 

ofColumbJa  University,  under  whonc  »..|...,v|,ton  thi.  I.lllc 
^U*e  has  b««n  wrought  out;  as  w..|l  «.  (o  Mlu  A.  M,  A.  H. 
Rogers  of  Oxford,  and  to  teachers  and  <«ll..w.rtud«nU  in  iN.tli 
Universities  who  have  helped  to  lighten  the  i.,»l,     V...  cao  1 


♦. 


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DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 


[lO 


"] 


INTR  OD  UCTION 


II 


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HomtY'i  Odyssey.    Ed.  W.  W.  Merry.    Oxford,  1889. 

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Bacchylides.     Ed.  F.  G.  Kenyon.     London,  1897. 

Kaibel:  Epigrammata  Graeca  ex  labidibus  conlecta.     Berolini,  1878. 

Preger:  Inscriptiones  Graecae  Metricae.     Lipsiae,  1891. 

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y 


'K.  Robert :  Thanatos.     Berlin,  1879. 


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/ 


A.  de  la  Borde:  Collection  des  Vases  Grecs  de  M.  le  Comte  de  Lamberg. 
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Gilbert:  The  Constitutional  Antiquities  of  Sparta  and  Athens.     London,  1 895. 

C.  R.  Kennedy:  Demosthenes,  Vol.  III.     London,  1880. 

P.  Gardner:  New  Chapters  in  Greek  History.     London,  1892. 

Farnell:  Cults  of  the  Greek  States.     Oxford,  1896. 

Z.  Dyer:  The  Gods  in  Greece.     New  York,  1894. 

Harrison  and  Verrall :  Mythology  and  Monuments  of  Ancient  Athens.  Lon- 
don, 1890. 

M.  Collignon  :  Manual  of  Mythol(^  in  Relation  to  Greek  Art.    Translated 

by  J.  E.  Harrison.      London,  1890. 

Frazer:  The  Golden  Bough.     London,  1890. 

Hart  land:  The  Legend  of  Perseus.     London,  1894-5. 

G.  F.  Creuzer :  Symbolik  u.  Mythologie.     Leipzig,  1836-42. 

Baumeister :  Denkmaler  des  klassischen  Alterthums.  Mttnchen  u.  Leipzig, 
1885-8. 

M.  Collignon:  Manual  of  Greek  Archaeology.  Transl.  by  J.  H.  Wright.  Lon- 
don, 1886. 

Tsountas  and  Manatt:  The  Mycenaean  Age.     Boston,  1897. 

Buchholz:  Die  Homerischen  Realien.     Leipzig,  1871-85. 

H,  Blumner:  Leben  u.  Sitten  der  Griechen.    Leipzig,  1887, 

Gardner  and  yevons:    Manual  of  Greek  Antiquities.      London,  1895. 
Daremher^  et  Saglio:   Dictionnaire  des  Antiquit^s.      Vol.  IV.      Paris,  1896. 
Roscher:  Lexikon  der  griech.  und  rom.  Mythologie.     Leipzig,  1884-. 
Papers  of  the  American  School  at  Athens,  1882-97. 

The  following  are  also  recommended : 

Fr.  Winiewski:  De  Euripidis  ad  extremam  hominis  sortem  spectantes  tractandi 
ratione.  Progr.  Acad.  Mtinster,  1890.  (Other  papers  by  this  same  author  cited 
by  Iwanowitsch.) 

De  natura  et  indole  animanim  ex  sententia  Euripidis.  (Schluss  der  vorstehen- 
den  AbKandlung.)     Progr.  Miinster,  1864. 

C.  F.  Hermann:  De  vestigiis  institutionum  vetenim,  imprimis  Atticorum  per 
Platonis  de  legibus  libros  indagandis.    Marburgi,  1836. 

Collignon:  Note  sur  les  ceremonies  fimebres  en  Attique.  Annales  de  la  Fa- 
culty de  Bordeaux,  1879. 


I 


li 


I ; 


12 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[12 


Kumanudis  :  'ArriK^g  'E'mypa<l>al  'Eitltvu^lol.     Athens,  187 1. 
y.  Girard :  Le  Sentiment  religieux  en  Grdce. 

Lehrs :  Vorstellungen  der  Griechen  uber  Fortleben  nach  dem  Tode.  Pop- 
ulare  Aufeatze  aus  dem  Alterthum.     Leipzig,  1875. 

Furtwdngler :  Idee  des  Todes.     Freiburg,  1855. 

E,  Mam:  Orpheus.    Miinchen,  1895. 

J^eisacker:  Die  Todesgedanke  bei  den  Griechen.  Jahr.  Konig.  Gyna.  zur 
'Trier,  1862. 

M.  M.  Daniel:  A  Future  Life  as  represented  by  the  Greek  Tragedians.  Clas. 
Jlev.,  vol.  iv.  London,  1890. 

Prater:  Pausanias' Description  of  Greece.    Oxford,  1898. 

•Catalogue  of  Vases  in  the  British  Museum,  I^ndon,  1893. 

Note. — In  the  first  list  given  above  all  the  chief  authorities  cited  in  the  follow- 
ing pages  are  included,  and  they  are  referred  to  by  the  authors'  names.  Where 
reference  is  made  to  other  books,  the  whole  title  is  given.     When  fragments  of  the 

Tragedians  are  cited|  A.  stands  for  Aeschylus,  S.  for  Sophocles,  and  £.  for 

Euripides. 


\ 


CHAPTER  I 

VIEWS    REGARDING    DEATH 

Ever  since  the  advent  of  the  human  race,  the  law  of  death 
has  held  with  inexorable  force.  The  short-lived  generations  of 
men  have  flourished  and  faded,  like  the  leaves  from  the  trees:' 

and  gOne-Whither  the  leaves  go-who  could  tell  ?  For  some 
such  reason  there  has  always  been  a  keen  sympathy  between 
human  life  and  nature,  especially  i„  her  vegetable  forms ;  and 
among  the  Greeks  this  feeling  was  unusually  intense.  Plant- 
hfe  was  a  continual  parable  of  death  and  resurrection;  and  it 
IS  a  significant  fact  that  Demeter,  goddess  of  the  grain,  and 
Dionysus.'  god  of  the  vine,  were  the  two  divinities  of  the  upper 
earth  most  closely  connected  with  the  dead. 
It  is  as  the  result  of  long  experience  in  watching  the  growth 

decay,  and  resurrection  of  plants,  confirming  native  intuition' 
that  we  must  regard  the  instinctive  belief  in  the  continued  ex- 
istence of  the  soul.  For  it  is  impossible  for  philosophy  to 
prove  such  after-existence.  Plato  tried  to  do  so  in  his  im- 
mortal treatise,  the  Phaedo,  and  failed  utterly.  For  however 
cogent  his  arguments  may  be  to  those  who  wish  to  believe  at 
the  cold  touch  of  unprejudiced  reason  they  collapse  utterly 
Me  has  to  fall  back  on  popular  superstition  and  the  teaching 
of  the  poets.  * 

It  is  not  when  a  nation  has  reached  its  highest  point  of  cul- 
ture that  we  must  look  for  active  belief,  but  rather  at  some 

'  //.,  6 :  146.     For  souls  compared  to  leaves,  see  Ba^ciyl.,  V.,  63-7. 
'  I>yer:  Gods  in  Greece.     See  refs.  s.  v.  Dionysus,  p.  434. 

'3] 

•3 


J 


'm  ■ 


14  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [14 

period  in  its  earlier  history,  when  it  is  shaking  off  the  trammels 
of  barbarism  and  projecting  its  vague  notions  on  a  back- 
ground of  conscious  thought.    Such  a  time  was  the  Vth  century 

B.  C,  at  Athens.    When,  in  the  battle  of  Marathon,'  she 

struck  the  decisive  blow  for  the  freedom  of  Europe  from  the 
oppression  of  Asia,  at  that  same  time  she  drew  a  distinct  line 
of  demarcation  between  her  present  and  her  past.  Before  that 
she  was  but  a  small  state  among  the  many  which,  without 
unity  or  coherence,  fringed  the  south  coast  of  Europe;  from 
that  moment  she  became  a  leader  and  head,  not  merelv  of  the 
brief  political  Athenian  empire,  but  of  the  great  empire  of 
thought  that  finally  conquered  even  Rome. 

In  the  burial  customs  and  beliefs,  the  most  stable  of  all  in- 
stitutions, great  changes  had  come  about.  Yet  in  the  Vth  cen- 
tury we  find  the  traces,  though  then  almost  imperceptible,  of 
an  earlier  stage  of  dark  demon-worship.  The  present  school 
of  folklore-writers  would  have  us  believe  the  latter  was  the 
original  and  only  early  stage  of  every  nation's  development; 
but  their  arguments  are  far  from  convincing.  What  came 
earlier  than  this,  in  Athens  at  least,  has  not  yet  been  dis- 
covered. Pausanias  found  curious  customs  prevailing  in  odd 
corners  of  Hellas,  that  seemed  to  have  come  down  from  primi- 
tive times ;  and  the  earlier  Spartan  tombstones  present  forms 
and  figures  which  must  have  been  survivals  even  when  they 
were  erected. 

Whenever  a  custom  shows  a  tendency  to  become  fixed,  we 
may  know  that  the  real  presence  of  the  belief  is  vanishing ; 
while  change  and  variety  denote  life  and  growth.  The  Peri- 
clean  Age  presents  many  examples  of  both  these  truths,  no- 
where more  evident  than  in  those  burial  practices,  which  con- 
tinuing, though  full  of  contradictions,  to  survive  for  many  cen- 
turies, Lucian  ridiculed  with  so  much  wit. 

But  to  Aeschylus  and  his  fellow-tragedians  they  were  still 

^  See  Creasy* 5  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles. 


\\ 


I 


f'-' 


i 


15]  VIE PVS  REGARDING  DEATH         ^  jr 

alive  with  meaning.  To  them  the  funeral  wail,  the  solemn 
procession,  the  stone-marked  tomb,  the  prayers  and  offerings 
to  the  deceased,  were  not  an  idle  and  empty  show,  of  no 

benefit  to  the  dead  or  to  the  living.  Rather,  the  darkness  of 
death  was  a  thick  darkness  which  could  be  felt,  the  stifling 
shadow  of  the  tomb,  the  damp  gloom  of  the  vault,  the  keen 
cold  wind  of  the  sightless  cavern.  The  lower  world  was  a 
place   deprived   of  light,'   vvKrepog,^  hvavyrrroq,^  avalLog,*'  UKdrog,^  fiilag,^ 

KiXaivog,''  ^6<f>og,^  Kve<i)aiog,^  ipe3og,^^  and  death  a  darkness  on  the  eyes.'* 
To  view  the  light  was  to  live;"  to  see  the  light  no  more,  to 
die.'3.  This  to  be  sure  was  a  very  materialistic  view ;  but  it  is 
only  in  a  dead  faith  that  we  can  draw  the  line  sharply  between 

the  material  and  the  spiritual.  With  their  natural  love  of  life 
and  light  and  activity — a  feeling  strikingly  strong  among  the 
Greeks'* — they  feared  and  dreaded  death,  not  only  as  some- 
thing dark  and  therefore  joyless,'^  but  because  of  its  silence 
and  inertness,  where  a  man  was,'^ 

ov  x^P^C>  ^  TTo66g,  ov  (j)pevbg  apx^v^ 

sleeping  that  still  cold  breathless  sleep,'7  rbv  ael .  .  .  ariXevrov  virvov, 

^Ag.,  1323-24;  .4«/.,  808-9;  i%«7.,624-S;    Trad,  II44;  Hic.,10^\  Her., 
969;  /.  A,,  1509;  et.  al.  oft. 

"^Hip.,  1388;  Or.,  1225.        ^Pro.,  1128.         M/r.,  437,852;  H.  M.,  607. 

^Ai.,  394;  O.  C,  1701;  Hec,  209;  PAoen.,  1453;  Hip.,  837;  H.  M.,  563. 

^Hip.,  1388.  7  Pro.,  433.  8  />^.^  839.  jjip^^  1416.  9  Pro.,  1129;  Hip.,  836. 

^0  O.  C,  1390;  At.,  395;  Hel.,  519;  Ant.,  589;  Or.,   176. 

"  Sep.,  403;  Ale,  385,  269;  Hip.,  1444.     See  also  Bacchyl.  XIII,  30-1. 

"y^/r.,  82,  272,  362;  Hip.,  1 193;  et  al.  oft. 

"  Track.,  829 ;  Ale,  18,  868,  394-5  ;  et  al.  oft. 

^*  Ale,  301 ;  Soph.  Jr.,  64 ;  Eur.  Jr.,  446 ;  it  al  oft.     Eur.  makes  the  nurse 
explain  why,  Hip.,  193-7  J  and  gives  a  warning, /r.,  813,  //.  6-11 ;  /.  A.,  1385-6. 
"  Or.,  1084;  ^tal* 

^*Phil.,  860-1;  Ale,  404;   Per.,  840-2;   Track.,  829-30,  1 169-73;  O.   T,^ 
967-8. 

"4^.,  1450-I;   Track.,  1005,  1041-3;  Ai.,  831-4;  ^»/.,  76.  832;  Hip.,  1377, 
1387;  see  also  //.,  11 :  241 ;  14:  482. 


l6  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [j^ 

from  which  neither  affection  nor  enmity  nor  interest  could 
arouse  him — &av6vr(av  &  ovSh  &?iyoc  aTTTerai,  says  Creon/  and  Elec- 

tra'  cries  despairingly,  d  nc  hf  mi  xm\  hopeless  in  its  endless- 

ness,3  for, 

rig  ^av6vT(.yv  t/Mev  e^  'Aidov  irdTuv ; 

a  slipping  away  even  into  nothingness;*  ovKiT"  ovaav  ohSh,  Alcestis 
wails,  in  spite  of  the  assurances  of  a  happy  future  life  which 
have  been  offered  to  her.  In  this  last  point,  though  we  must 
carefully  avoid  dogmatism,  we  may  clearly  trace  a  decay  in 
belief;  for  such  expressions  belong  only  to  Euripides; 
Aeschylus  never  even  hints  that  the  dead  are  nothing,  and 

Sophocles*  utterances  are  equivocal. 

Perhaps  really  the  worst  feature  of  death  "was  that  it  was 
utterly  unavoidable,  that  sometime,  somewhere,  it  must  over- 
take its  victim,  and  that  there  was  no  escape.^  For  in  spite  of 
what  some  modern  philosophers  say,  those  evils  which  are 
inevitable  are  always  the  hardest  to  be  borne.  Here  courage 
and  valor  avail  nothing ;  and  the  meeker  graces  of  submission 
and  resignation  did  not  appeal  very  strongly  to  the  fancy  of 

the  Hellenes.  This  feeling  of  helplessness  in  the  strong  ex- 
presses itself  even  from  Homeric  times,^ 

and  in  Sophocles  only  the  words  are  changed, 

1  O.  6'.,  955;  A/c,  875,  937-8;  S.  £/.,  1 170;   Tro.,  606-7,  638;  CAo.,  517-8. 
*S.  EL,  356;   Tro.,  1248-9;  Ale,  1091 ;  Hel.,  1402-3. 

^H.  M.,  297,  145-6;  Ag.,  568-9,  1019-21 ;  Eum.,  647-8;  Per.,  689-90 ;  0.  C, 
1701,  1706-7  ;  Fhil.,  624-5;  S.  EL,  137-9 ;  /.  T.^  481 ;  Ale,  985-6;  et  aL 

*Alc.,  387,  322,  381,  390;  /.  A.,  125 1;  Tro.,  632-3;  S.  EL,  1 166-7;  HeL, 
1421.  Hades  is  called  aidrjTMv,  At.,  608.  See  Iwanowitsch,  in  Berliner  Studien, 
16,  p.  57-8. 

*  See  BacchyL,  III,  51-2. 

•  Od.t  24:  29. 


;// 


J 


17]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  ^7 

the  fate  of  death  is  for  all.^  Closely  akin  to  its  certainty  was 
its  relentlessness  ;  what  it  had  it  held : 

teri  J*  ovK.  evE^oSov, 
dAAwc  TE  irdvTiDC  X^l  Kara  x^ovoc  ^eol 
Tm^eIv  ajJLEivovg  elalv  ^  fie^iivacj 

says  the  ghost  of  Darius." 

Like  Homer,  the  Tragedians  consider  death  the  work  of  fate,' 
and  therefore  just  and  right.*  In  Aeschylus  and  Sophocles 
especially,  it  is  often  the  work  of  some  of  the  gods,^  particu- 
larly of  Zeus,^  or  on  special  occasions  of  Phcebus,^  Athene,* 
etc.;  but  though  the  gods  could  slay,  they  could  not  avert  death 

even  from  the  man  they  loved.9  Sophocles  and  Euripides  have 
a  fancy  for  attributing  ^°  it  to  rlxVf  ari  abstraction  which  was 
rapidly  becoming  personified  in  Athens,  and  which,  curiously 
in  contrast  with  this  attribution,  was  quickly  developing  into  a 
sort  of  tutelary  divinity  of  the  city,  the  dya^^  rvxn  of  the  legal 
inscriptions  standing  in  the  usual  place  of  the  name  of  some 
god,  which  in  Athens  would  be  Athene.  This  attribution 
may  denote  a  change  in  the  sentiment  of  the  people  towards 

1  .S".  £/.,  860;   Afti.,  361-2;    O.  C,  1220-4;   Ale,  21,  112-35,  '47»  4'9»  '^  ^^'* 
Eur.fr.,  46;  et  al. 

*  Per.,  688-90;  Ag.,  1360-1 ;  Ale,  1 12-8,  132-6.     See  refs.  p.  16,  n.  3. 

» By  Moira:   Ag.,    145 1-2;    Cho.,    910-I ;  Ale,    II,  33;  Eum.,  ^24;   Phil.y 
331;  Au,i\^\etaL 

fidipav  {^avdrov),  Med.,  987;  Ag.,  13 14,  1462,  1365;  et  aL 
/ii6pog  =  fate  of  death,  Ag.,  329;  Hee,  695. 
TTETrpoyrai,  Ale,  20-2,  26-7,  105,  147,  et  al. 
b<}>ei2.eTai,  Ale,  419. 

*  Ale,  49,  122-9,  3-4»  ^^  ^^' 

^  Sep.,   689-90;    O.    T.,   27  J   Ai.,   950,970;   And.,    1204;    lott,    1244-5;   Ale, 
297—8.      So  BacchyL,  V.,  1 34— 5,  in   war,  -^dvarov  re  <f>ipei  roiaiv  av  Saifzov  ^iTiif. 

«  O.  C,  1460-1 ;  Ag.,  362-6;  Ale,  34;  et  al. 

T  Phil.,  335.  8  ^j.,  952-3. 

>  Hip.,  1339-40 ;  Ale,  52-3  ;   Od.,  3  :  236-9 ;  et  aL 

10  a    T,  263;    S.  fr.,   865;  Ale,  889;    Cye,  605-6;    Ai.,  1028;  dvarvxog 
daifiuv,  S.  EL,  H56-7. 


i8 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[i8 


1 


!l 


death,  or  may  be  due  simply  to  the  tendency  to  make 
Athene  the  one  supreme  divine  power  in  Athens.     It  should 

be  remarked  that  the  gods  who  send  death,  Zeus,  Apollo, 
Artemis,  Ares,  and  the  rest  of  their  circle,  are  not  the  gods 
who  receive  the  dead. 

Death  from  whatever  source  was  a  great  calamity ;  <j  Uvaroi: 
deivdvKaKdv,  was  the  common  verdict;"  and  the  terrified  Iphi- 
geneia  declares,'  though  later  she  retracts  it,  kokHh:  C^  Kpeicao,  a  kgXoc 
^avEiv.  Sophocles'  characters  speak  3  with  no  less  certain  sen- 
timents : 

ovK  lanv  ovTQ  fiopo^  6f  ^avcZv  ip^. 

And  Prometheus  fears  nothing,-*  since  to  him  ^amv  ov  fidpaifiov. 
Death  was  felt  to  be  so  great  an  affliction  that  only  sin  against 
the  gods  could  merit  it,  and  that  it  was  therefore  a  punish- 
ment,5  so  that  Admetus  complains, 

6p^  ai  KOfxif  6vo  luiKog  TreirpaydTac, 
ov6h>  ^eovc  dp&aavraq  av&'  brov  iJavrt. 

Among   an  emotional  people  like  the  Athenians,  by  the 
simple  reaction  of  feeling  a  morbid  desire  for  death  laid  hold 

on  them  under  the  stress  of  any  great  calamity,  and  it  was  even 

found  by  contrast  to  possess  many  advantages.  The  Chorus<^ 
hearing  of  Agamemnon*s  death,  crj^  out, 

Kar&aveJp  upareV 
irencuTipa  yap  fwlpa  rrj^  rvpawido^^ 

"It  is  better  for  us  to  die,  for  death  is  preferable  to  this 
tyranny!"  and  later  they  wish,7  n^  ya  ya,  el^'  ip:  kdk^u.  But  such 
expressions  are  not  to  be  taken  seriously.     The  Greeks  in 

1  /  A„  I416;  H,  M.,  281-2.  «  7.  ^.,  la^a. 

'  Ant.,  220,  ?8o-l  ;  AL,  215,  4  ^^.^  ^y^ 

^Alx,,24^i  Ifac,  iiat>.t;^.  £L,  134^-55:  i?.  ^>s,  496-^:  ^«.,  95»«5  I 

'4r..  «53«J  J^'*1i^\  -^.Af/,, 804-5;  aC.i«$-9o:  5:j?/.,8it;  O.  T,, 
i«57»  '^^'^  '3*^33;  Ttm4h.,  16-7;  rr«^.  630-1 :  ///r.,  497-$ ;  A/X/^  146-7; 
a  aL^  vtrjr  comiDoci. 


V  •■» 


19]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  i^ 

their  moments  of  depression  found  life  full  of  evils  from  which 
none  were  exempted  :* 

a»rai»r'  airfffictv  rbv  61  alHtvo^  XP^**^^ »' 

and  of  which  death  was  not  the  greatest," 

ov  yap  "^avelv  ix^iarov, 

nor  long  life  the  least,3 

ovdh  yap  iXyoc  ohv  ^  koXX^  C6v» 

Death  was  then  a  release  from  evils : 

T^  yap  &avelv  kXev&epovpai  ^iXai6,KT(jv  kokCiv, 

is  the  consolation  of  the  hunted  Danaidae  ;♦  a  medicine  for  sou 
rov/s, piyiffTov<i>dp/jLaKov,  Macaria,^  no  less  a  homeless  wanderer,  find.^ 
it;  and  the  tortured  Prometheus^  envies  those  who  can  so  easily 
end  their  woes.  It  was  preferable  to  blindness,'  to  evil  re}>ort ,• 
to  living  among  enemies  ^  and  without  friends  ;'**  and  to  the 
weary  toiler  it  was  welcome  if  merely  for  its  rest;  for  says 
Herakles,"  at  last  realizing  the  true  import  of  the  oracle : 

Tolg  yap  ^avovat  pdx^o^  ov  npoayiyverat. 

And  Orestes,"  persecuted  by  men  and  gods,  proudly  refuses  to 

bewail  his  approaching  fate.'s  Vet  suicide  w^as  not  common 
except  in  case  of  overwhelming  disgrace  like  that  of  Aia^»  or 
to  avoid  a  lingering  but  inevitable  death  like  Antigone ;  thus 
showing  that  these  expressions  were  the  result  of  merely 
transitory  emotion.  Draco'*  after  cool  reflection  declares  he 
has  no  higher  punishment  for  the  greatest  crimes;  and  in 
oaths '5  such  words  as,  "  If  I  speak  not  the  truth  I  ought  to  die," 
abound  as  the  strongest  form  of  asseveration. 


^Asr.,  553-4-  *S.  £1,  X007. 

*A.  Su/>.,  8o»-3;  /^«»/.»  463-4. 
•  ^V^..  753  4  J  •$>/..  3J^.  6H4. 


^S.Jr.,  509;    cf.   O.    C,  1225-7. 

*  ///r.,  595-6;  //*..  63$. 
»  O.  T„  I3)WL 


^^^'t  393-  "  TJwi.,  1 173.  Si9-3a  »  /.  7!,  484-9. 

**  Fee  the  tre*tmeM  pC  lht&  whok  mlfcct,  lor«  of  life  Mti  hatrtd  c^  death,  ice 

»•  /Xy/.  .SW..  i6w  »»  a  7:.  943-4,  66i-a;  FAil^  i^u 


I 


20  ^EA  TH  AND  B  URIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [20 

But  whatever  advantages  death  might  or  might  not  possess, 

it  brought  with  it  one  great  and  certain  calamity,  the  separation 
from  friends  and  relatives."  To  us  with  our  long-inherited  be- 
lief in  an  endless  reunion  beyond  the  grave,  perhaps  with  our 
colder  philosophy  and  boasted  greater  self-control,  the  in- 
tense agony  of  parting  from  loved  ones  felt  by  the  emotional 
and  affectionate  Athenians  seems  far-fetched  and  overdrawn, 
especially  when  we  remember  how  often  the  fate  of  war 
not  only  slew  husband  and  brother,  but  scattered  forever  the 
survivors  of  even  noble  families  into  the  hard  lot  of  slavery. 

Death  and  distance  in  such  cases  amounted  to  much  the  same 
thing,  and  the  traveller's  garb  on  the  monuments  generally  de- 
notes the  journey  to  the  tomb.*  As  we  might  expect,  very 
affecting  are  the  Ieave-takings,3  though  in  most  cases  too  long 
for  quotation,  which  the  Tragedians  have  portrayed  for  us. 
And  while  the  groups  figured  on  the  tombstones  may  some- 
times refer  to  a  reunion,  yet  the  sentiments  expressed  are  more 
often  of  the  sorrow  of  parting,  such  as  the  following  inscrip- 
tion^ from  the  Vth  century,  accompanying  the  representation  of 

a  lady  taking  leave  of  her  mother  and  little  daughter; 

'KivQoq  KovpL6i(f)  re  irdaei  koX  firjTpl  Xnrovaa 
Kal  Trarpl  t<^  ^vaavTL  TioT^v^kvT}  kv&dde  Kelrat. 

Equally  touching  are  the  impassioned  farewells  to  nature,^ 
like  Iphigeneia's  x^ipe  /loi  <pilov  <i>doc,  or  that  last  apostrophe  by 
Aias  before  falling  on  his  sword  on  the  sandy  Ilian  shore : 
**  And  thee,  O  present  glory  of  the  shining  day  and  chariot- 
borne  sun,  I  salute  for  the  last  time  truly  and  never  again 

^K  M.,  512-3;  A/cSje-y,  1133-4;  ^«>.,  838;  Tro.,  487-8;  i^<f^.,  1021-3, 
1038-9;  Or.,  1018-21 ;  ^/  al. 

*See  below,  chap.  III. 

»  O,  C,  1604-21 ;  At.,  545-82;   Track.,  1143-1278;  Ale,  156-392;  Hec,  402- 
43 ;  H^^y  574-607;  Hip.,  1391-1461;  /.  A.,  1434-1509  ;  et  al, 

*  Come  :  Attische  Grabreliefs,  FL,  66,  p.  62.     See  also  Gardner's  Sculptured 
Tombs  of  Hellas,  pp.  168-17 1. 

»/.  A.,  1509 ;  Ai.,  412-27;  Ale,  244-5,  248-9  ;  Hec,  435-7. 


^I] 


VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH 


,^ 


21 

hereafter.  O  light,  O  sacred  country  of  mine  own  land 
Salamis,  O  floor  of  my  father's  hearth,  and  famous  Athens, 

and  race  that  shared  my  nurture,  and  these  ye  springs  and 
rivers,  even  the  Trojan  plains,  I  call  upon,  farewell  my  foster- 
ers !  This  last  word  Aias  speaks  to  you ;  the  rest  .shall  I  tell 
to  those  below  in  Hades." ' 

This  gloomy  view  of  death  was  the  normal  Greek  attitude. 
For  though  friends  might  try  to  console  themselves  with  the 
hope  of  meeting  again,  and  the  poets  might  promise  a  world 
free  from  care  and  pain,  when  all  had  been  said  it  was  still  an 

unknown  world,  which  was  neither  home  nor  fatherland  •  and 

though  all  one's  friends  might  come  thither  at  last,  it  was  still 
an  exile  and  the  time  was  long.  Little  wonder  then  that  life 
was  loved :' 

and  death,  especially  for  the  young,3  hated  and  feared.*  The 
whole  of  the  Alcestis  is  the  glorification  of  the  giving  in  cold 
blood  of  one  young  life  for  another  as  the  acme  of  human 
virtue.5 

Death,  then,  being  so  terrible,  was  to  be  avoided  even  in 
name.  Just  how  much  connection  was  felt  to  exist  between 
the  name  of  a  thing  and  the  thing  itself  we  do  know.  Among 
the  Semites  to  name  a  thing  was  to  call  it  into  activity,  but  we 
do  not  find  this  notion  prevalent  among  the  Indo-Europeans 
Still  the  name  had  some  power  or  value ;  the  Greeks  escaping 
the  sea  after  the  Trojan  war  carry  back  the  names  of  the  dead:^ 

VEKpiJv  (^kpovrag  ovd/iar*  elg  oIkovq  ird'hv' 
Ul..  856-65. 
et\[  ^"  '^^°'  ^^'"  ^""^  ^'^''  ^"'  ^"^"  '^^-^'  ^•■^"-  ^^'  537;  S./r.,  64; 

it'll',  ^'^  '''^^'  ^^"  '°^^^°'  ^^'"  ^^'  '^^*  ^^4-5'  ^'"'^'^^  '*  5,  6,  12.  16. 

'Ale.,  62.  669-72.  681-4;    Or.,  1033-4;   Ant.,  220,  580;  Hec,  240-1.  24S; 
E.  El,  221;  et  a  I.  oft.     Plato :  Rep.  I,  330  e.  **       ,    ^  , 

*  Ale,  150-5,  320-5,  425-34,  623-4,  et  al.  9  Hel.,  399. 


V 


DEA  TH  AND  B URIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [22 

and  in  a  Vlth  century  inscription^  Phrasecleia  says  she  is  to  be 

called  K<Apn  forever,  thus  signifying  her  mystic  identification  With 
the  bride  of  Hades.  The  Greeks  were  besides  very  super- 
stitious about  words— probably  the  relic  of  some  earlier 
system  of  divination  whose  real  essence  had  been  forgotten. 
The  mention  of  death  was  a  bad  omen ;  //ozpa  6vc(^wm.  Homer* 
says.  The  messengers  from  Corinth  will  not  at  first  say  that 
Polybus  is  dead,  but  only  that  Oedipus  is  declared  king ;  and 
Agamemnon's  herald  answers  the  Chorus  whose  curiosity  has 

has  been  stirred  by  a  vague  hint  of  the  probable  drowning  of 
Menelaus  :* 

tv^r\\i(fv  vi^ap  oi)  irpiwei  naKayytT^ 
yXcjaay  fitaivetv, 

Platos  tells  us  that  likewise  the  name  of  Hades  was  avoided: 

oi  '^oTJ^l  <l>o(iovf^oc  rb  bvof^a  HadeS  Wh^hruva  WCalth-giver  KO^vCLV  avr6v. 

The  name  Pluto  occurs  in  the  Tragedians^  as  an  equivalent 
for  Hades,  but  it  is  rare  and  seems  to  have  been  introduced 
chiefly  for  the  metre. 

The  visible  representation  of  death  was  still  more  ominous ; 

and  when,  during  the  Peloponnesian  War,  the  fleet  for  Syra- 
cuse was  being  sent  out,  the  fact  that  just  at  that  time  the  feast 
of  Adonis  was  being  celebrated  and  the  efiigies  of  his  dead 
body  filled  the  streets,  was  noted  with  gloomy  foreboding,^ 
especially  after  the  disaster.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  Greeks 
thought  that  the  display  of  these  effigies  actually  caused  the 
disaster,  but  rather  that  it  was  a  sign  from  the  gods ;  though 
they  may  have  had  a  feeling  inherited  from  earlier  times  that 

there  was  some  evil  influence  connected  with  them.     The  re- 
lation of  cause  to  effect  is  rarely  clear  in  the  popular  mind. 

1  Kaibel,  6.  «  //.,  12 :  1 16.  *  O.  T.,  939-42. 

M^..  636-7,  1247;  Ale,  139,  512-21;  Hec,  180-1;  /.  A.,  855-73;  ^»>.. 
797-8CX);  et  al.  oft. 

•  Plato  :  Cratyl.  403  a.  •  ^^^  ^  \  ^U,,  360 ;  H.  M.,  808. 

iFlut.  Alcib.,  18;  Nic,  13;  Tkuc^x  30;  Prater:  Golden  Bough,  I,  284-5- 


23]  ^lEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  .,. 

To  bring  the  fact  home  to  an  individual  by  calling  him  dead 

was  a  degree  worse : 

Helen  asks  doubtfully,  and  Menelaus  finding  no  other  way  oi 
safety  answers,* 

KaKoq  ftev  dpvig-  el  Se  KEpdavu  Uyetv^ 
€Toifi6g  elfii  fi^  '&avd)v  Ady^  ^avelv. 

We  must  notice  how  careful  each  is  to  put  //^  ^avdv  before  the 
inauspicious  word.  Orestes,'  when  Electra  wails  over  the 
urn,  "  Ah  me  unhappy  if  I  am  to  be  deprived  of  thy  tomb! " 

checks  her  hastily  with  the  words,  "Speak  auspiciously!" 
The  Chorus  3  in  the  Agamemnon  raging  in  fierce  helplessness 
against  Aegisthus,  snatch  up  his  last  word,  and  twisting  it  to  a 
new  meaning  as  if  they  would  wrest  fate,  cry  out,  dexo^hoL^ 
Uytiq  ^aveiv  as.  It  was  a  piece  of  daring,  almost  of  impiety  on 
the  part  of  Orestes,  in  keeping  with  his  rather  reckless  char- 
acter, to  bid  the  Paedagogus  report  him  as  dead ;  and  realizing 
this,  as  we  have  just  seen  he  did,  he  defends  himself  rather 
knavishly;* 

ri  ydp  fie  AvTreZ  tov^\  orav  ?i6y(f)  ^avuv 
ipyoiai  ao)-&C)  Ka^eviyKcjfiai  K?iiog  • 
SoKo)  fikv,  ovSev  pfjfia  avv  KipSec  kukSv. 
V6ij  yap  elSov  noXXcKig  koX  rovg  aoii>ovg 
Uyu  fiarrrv  ^vyaKovrar  eli?'  brav  SSjuovg 
IMuoLV  av-&iQy  EKTeTifiTpn-ai  nleov. 

Such  a  deception,  for  different  reasons,  was  practiced  by 
Pythagoras  and  some  of  his  pupils,  by  Heraclitus,  Odysseus, 
and  others,  and  their  success  was  probably  due  not  only  to 

the  popular  superstition,  but  to  the  wonder  they  excited  that 
they  could  thus  dare  fate  and  live.  In  later  times  (beginning 
we  do  not  know  how  early),  to  be  actually  believed  dead  and 
to  have  the  funeral  ceremonies  performed,  was  a  very  serious 
matter;  for  in  that  case,  according  to  the  law  quoted  by 
Plutarch,s  the  person  was  deemed  polluted  :  M  vofii^tiv  dj^f,  ,i^S' 

I  Ilel.,  1050^2.  «  S.  EL,  1209-10.  ^Ag.,  1653 ;  Hec,  1279-84. 

'S.  EL,  59-64.  5  pi^t.  Quaes.  Rom.,  5. 


r    - 


i 


2  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [24 

mentirig  on  this  law «  describes  at  length  the  -ru^us  proce^^ 
through  which  persons  once  really  supposed  dead  had  to  go 
to  be  restored  to  their  former  rights  as  living  men;  and  the 
names  v<n.,>^o,.o.  and  <!e.r«pd.o;..o:  were  given  them.  Ihe 
reason  was  that  such  persons  were  considered  consecrated  to 
the  lower  gods  and  therefore  impure;  and  Herakless  warns 
Admetus  not  to  speak  to  the  restored  Alcestis  for  three  days, 
until  she  is  freed  from  her  consecration  to  the  chthon.an 

divinities.  .       ,  ^^ 

Since  dreams  were  often  looked  upon  as  supernatural  re- 
velations, it  was  especially  bad  to  dream  of  being  dead  or 
clothed  in  the  garments  of  the  dead ;  and  when,  early  m  this 
Vth  century.  Mardonius  sent  a  messenger  as  his  representa uve 
to  the  oracle,  and  that  messenger  dreamed  of  bemg  killed, 
it  clearly  foretold  Mardonius'  own  death.* 

The  unintentional  causing  of  the  death  of  another  was  likewise 
ominous-though  that  may  have  been  owing  to  the  vengeance 
of  the  departed  spirit-as  when  Clytaemnestta  warns  Achilles 

lest  Iphigeneia's  death  be  of  evil  omen  to  his  marriage.=     And 
even  to  wail  too  much  for  the  dead  might  stir  up  wrath  from 

the  lower  eods.^  .  .  i-  i. 

Sophocles  records  for  us   a  curious  superstition,  which 
though  the  scene  is  laid  in  Homeric  times,  is  not  mentioned 
by  Homer.'  that  a  gift  from  an  enemy  is  fatal.'     A.as  attributed 
all  his  misfortunes  to  the  sword  given  him  by  Hector,    ac- 
cording to  the  popular  adage," 

and  Teucer,  gazing  on  the  dead  body  of  Aias,  moralizes, 

1  Tilfy:  Corput  Juris  Attici,  1446-  *  ^".J"*-'  '•  "• 

*Alc.,  1144-6;  see  22-3,  75-6. 

*  Plut.  Alcii.,  39  ;  see  Aristid.,  19  \  Pa"'-  4  =  '3  =  '• 
./.^.,  987-9.  •  O.  C.  . 751-3- 

'Cf.//.,7=303ff.  M,-.,  661-5. 1026-35. 


25]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH 

"Knowest  thou  how  at  last  Hector  though  dead  was  doon^ed 

to  be  thy  destruction  ?  Consider  before  the  gods  the  fate,  .,;,, 
of  two  mortals :  Hector  by  the  very  girdle  which  was  given 
him  by  this  man,  was  bound  to  the  steed-borne  car,  and  con- 

Ta^I  '^l       /"^  "'^"^'^'^  ""*'■'  ^^  breathed  out  his  life 
And  this  other,  Aias.  through  Hector's  gift,  the  sword,  perished 
by  Its  means  through  a  deadly  fall.     Did  not  Erinys  forge 
this  sword,  and  Hades  the  fierce  workman  make  that  girdle?" 
So  too  It  will  be  remembered  the  gift  of  blood  from  Nessus' 
caused  the  death  of  Herakles.  through  in  this  case  intentionally. 
These  were^the  inherent,  the  spontaneous,  popular  notions, 
denved,  possibly,  from  a  rude  reasoning,  from  far-traveled  re- 
ports, from  the  echoes  of  some  forgotten  cult.     However  and 
whencesoever  they  came,  they  were  the  common  heritage  of 
the  people.     But  had  the  philosophers,  the  real  thinkers;  the 
great  popular  teachers,  nothing  better  to  say?    In  later  times 
the  many  philosophical   sects,  foreign  elements  in   religion 

as  m  the  worship  of  Dionysus  and  of  Isis,  lent  a  different  color-' 

'"f  ^°l^\P^'^^^°^°Sy  at  least.  But  in  the  Vth  century  be- 
s,des  the  fact  that  foreign  religions  were  not  tolerated  phil- 
osophy-real philosophy  concerning  thelsoul-was  only  begin- 
ning^ In  the  days  of  Aeschylus  it  served  simply  to  steel  the 
heart  against  the  inevitable :  f  /  cci  ine 

jys  Cassandra  in  despair »;  and  Prometheus,3  who  knows  he 
IS  deathless,  can  very  well  advise, 

r^  nCKpUtjLltVTfV  6i  xp^ 
alaav  <f>ipeiv  <if  p^ara,  }cyv6aKov^'  bri 
TO  r^c  avAyKtiQ  ecr'  aS^pirov  (r&ivof, 

Sophocles,  belonging  to  a  later  phase,  makes  Aias*  say: 


>  Track,,  555-81. 
»  Pro,,  103-5. 


*^^-,  1304. 
Mi;,  479-80. 


1 


26  DEA  TH  AND  BURIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRACED  Y  [26 

And  again  he  says:^ 

6(TTff  di  ^vrrrHrv  -davarov  bppuSel  "kiav 

and  when  he  is  old : ' 

tifl  <^vvaL  rbv  anavra  vm  ^70V'  rb  cT,  end  <^vv, 
Tzokv  deirepov,  cjf  TdxiOTa^ 

as  if  he  had  found  life,  in  spite  of  his  many  SUCCeSSeS  fuU  Of 
cai  and  weariness.3  i„  Euripides,  the  friend  and  follower  of 
^Sph^rs.  we  expect  and  find  a  different  H-  o^  th-.ht. 
He  is  speculative,  and  speaks «  of  awo  .x^,^  ^-.  and  says . 

6  vovg 
iiUvarov  elg  aMvarov  alW  «/^^c^<^»'» 

something  which  comes  rather  near  our  notion  of  pure^rit 

The  Whole  theory  however  !s  abstrusc.  and  ai%  311  entirely 

Lrtarn  concepT  It  was  a  Homeric  term  for  the  abode  of 
the  tods  and  as  a  later  Athenian  inscription  calls  .t  vyp6c 
tmp  it  was  probably  conceived  of  as  in  the  cloudy  slcy  and 
it  is  often  mentioned  interchangeably  with  ovpa^.  trom 
various  lines  of  the  Helena^  taken  together  we  should  judge 
that  oipcv^cwas  the  place,  and  al^P  the  substance.  But  we 
need  not  suppose  that  every  mind  held  the  same  .mage  o  so 
neeanoib  pp  thoueh  the   stone-cutters 

intang  b  e  an  idea  as  a.%;  and,  tnougn  •• 

thouehtS  may  have  risen  no  higher  than  the  cloudy  sky.  the 
poet  and  the  seer  doubtless  looked  into  the  vast  spaces  be- 

i5./r.,  865. 

« a  c,  1225-7. 

3  See  S.  £1.,  1007,  and/r.,  509,  quoted  on  p.  19. 
^Med.,  1039 ;  ^/^..  21 ;  ^^'*'  ^°^7  i  ^-  ^'*  ^S^^' 
^Hel.t  1014-6;  see  E.fr.,A^1' 
•  Gardner:  New  Chapters  in  Greek  History,  pp.  330-2. 

•'Ilel.,  583-4*  33-4»  705.  I2'9.  605-7. 


27] 


VIEIVS  /REGARDING  DEATH 


V 


yond.     The   inscription   over  the  warriors   slain   at   Potidaea 

432  B.  C,  reads : » 

and  Kaufmann,»  remarking  on  this,  adds  that  al^^p^  according 
to  Anaxagoras  and  the  other  philosophers,  is  not  the  soul- 
substance  merely,  that  is.  the  breath,  the  air,  but  Olympus,  the 
abode  of  the  gods,  Elysium  ;  he  quotes  also  two  IVth  century 
inscriptions :  3  '"  v 


and, 


V,vpvfx&XOv  rfwxi^v  koI  l7rep<f,id2x)vc  diavoiag 
al^p  vypbg  kxu,  adfm  6i  rv/ifiog  bde- 


Qv[ibv6T)  Khicvov  Kal  i'!Ttp<f>i61ovq  diavoiag 
ai^VP  ?M/i7rpbc  Ixei,  aC>fMa  6k  rhfi^og  b6e 

l^T  u  V'"^'''^  '"''"^'''  ''"'^"^"  ^^^^^i^o  which  indicates 
that  whether  by  invitation  of  the  Potidaean  one  or  not  tws 

Sne  cu«r1  'T  ;'^  ^°""°"  '^™'"^'°^  °^  ^^^  ^-^ 

Stone-cutter.    Sophocles/ too,  once  speaks  of  ^s^-     -     •   .u 

sense  ot  the  future  wor  d  w  th  the  wnrri  a-  ^         r       . 

TT  r  »  .  woro  Swai  used  so  often  in 

agam  he  says,  ,  ^,„,  ^j,^,,  ,  ,,,,  ^,  jf  ^^ese  terms  were  equiva- 
en  Euripides  also  speaks  of  the  ai,(,a,iya.  into  which  Elec- 
ra    sends  groans  for  her  father  to  hear;  and  in  addition  places 

Z^Z'JT''  "-''''  '-'"''  '^  '^  ^'^  --  ^'"•n^.  '■-away 

av'  iypbv  ainzrairrv  aUkpa  iropcu  yai- 
ac  'E/J.Aav/af ,  aarepag  ea-Trepovg^ 

ohv  olov  aXyoc  Irra^ov,  (piAai. 
People  used  to  disparage  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  on  the 

^Kaibel,  21;  II.,  5,  6. 

*^*''"92.  »ac,i47,. 

«  E.  El,  59.  ,  ^^^^  ^^g_^ 


1 


/ 


U  I 


■■«   i 


,8  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY         [28 

ground  that  they  really  gave  but  little  con^fort  concerning  the 
future  life      But  Kaufmann,'  in  his  admirable  httle  book,  has 

hoTn  L  they  were  not  as  ineffectual  as  -  ^^erly  ^^^^ 
posed     Nagelsbach,  he  tells  us,'  m  commentmg  on  the  d.Her 
ences  between  the  three  great  sets  of  Mysteries,  says  :  "  In   he 
Omhic  men  sought  for  purity  and  holiness;  m  the  D.onys.ac 
fofbSssedness  Ld  ease;  in  the  Eleusinian,  for  comfort  and 

e  t'n  he  future  life."     It  will  be  remembered  m  how  much 

fevor  the  Mysteries,  especially  the  Eleusinian,  were  he W;  wha 
mmense  numbers  of  people,  even  from  afar,  were  m.t.ated , 
irhow  carefully  the  secrets,  though  known  to  so  many,  were 
kept :  and  this  all  goes  to  show  how  deeply  these  teach.ngs 
were  impressed  on  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  how  truly 
these  sentiments  entered  into  their  life  and  thought.s 

When  we  look  closely  we  find  traces,  often  very  clear  ones 
Of  These  Eleusinian  teachings  regarding  the  future  hfe.    The 
Mvstae  in  the  Fro^s*  claim  that  ....  i^  bdOHg  the  bkSSingS 
wWch  Herles  L  somewhat  irreverently  descnbed    m  an 
Tartr  passage.    The  Pseudo-Plato^  claims  for  them  a  front 
Sace  in  the  realms  of  the  blest:  5,„,c  ,^  oJv  ev  r,  C«v  ^«^.- "ra^^c 
m.  eic  r.  r.  ..,.  ..^  oU.w, .-.  etc.  (a  ^e-npt.  n 
the  Elvsian  fields),  h^av^o  roic  .^."//'^^'f  *<^'  "^  '^'""''''"-     "^ 
t  sSn  ;hat  the  ikinitiated  are  not  excluded  ^om  ^le-dn^ 
if  thev  have  led  good  lives,  but  that  the  m.t.ated  have  the 
Sonor  Of  *e  front'rank.  a  reward  which  appealed  to  the  amb.- 
Ss  and  emulous  Greeks.     In  Polygnotus"  great  pa.ntmg  of 
Hades    in  the  Lesche  at  Delphi,  we- see  the  mfluence  of  the 
Sleusinian   Mysteries   throughout.    At  the  very  begmn.ng^ 
.  C.  M.  Kaufmann:  DU  JemHUhoffnun.en  dcr  GrUcHen  u.  Rmn,  .897. 

:"et:::;r;;=  ...    No.e.Uo.Ke«re.popu.ari.yorthena»«De.. 
teios  among  the  Modem  Greeks,  surely  a  survival. 
•  Frogs,  454-5-  '54-7- 

M*.VA..37ic.d.   See  A»M,  p.  288,  n.  I. 

*Paus.,  10:  28:  3- 


29J 


VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH 


29 

Cleoboea  is  seated  in  Charon's  boat,  holding  the  mystic  cyst 
«'/?"T^f,  on  her  knees,  receiving  honor  because  she  first  intro-' 
duced  the  Mysteries  into  Thasos.  On  the  tombstones  and 
vases  we  frequently  find  this  box.  often  called  a  "  jewel-box  " 
represented  in  the  hands  or  on  the  knees  of  a  lady  At  the 
end  of  Polygnotus-  painting."  among  the  great  criminals,  are 
four  people  who  have  mocked  the  Mysteries;  a  man  a  boy 
and  two  women :  „i  ^.  m..  ^i^„,,  ,,„p  ,,,  „j ,,        ^^^l 

ri^  ■ri^ov.  Just  wherein  consists  the  severity  of  such  punish- 
ment it  is  hard  to  realize,  unless  on  the  one  hand  the  actions 
may  be  highly  symbolical,  or  on  the  other  they  may  merely 
denote  that  endless  and  unremunerative  labor,  the  doing  of  a 
simple  thing  that  yet  never  is  done,  which  was  the  Greek  ideal 
of  perfect  unhappiness.  Our  painter  seems  to  have  been  of 
that  severe  school  who  consider  sins  of  omission  as  equally 

heinous  with  sins  of  commission ;  for  not  far3  from  the  mockers 

are  two  women  carrying  water  in  broken  pitchers,  with  an  in- 
scr.pt.on  above  them  stating  that  they  are  "  not  of  the  initi- 
ated," oi,  fu^v^,,ivun,.     Pindar  <  speaks  of  the  fine  rewards  in  Ely- 
sium which  await  those  "purified."    Kaufmann'  thinks  the 
Eleus.n.an  influence  was  very  wide  and  deep;  and  its  effect  on 
our  three  Tragedians  he  sums  up  thus :  "  The  fundamental  idea 
oi  the  Aeschylean  works  is  that  death  is  better  than  life  •  and 
in  the  seven  surviving  tragedies  of  Sophocles  no  less  than  six 
persons  die  voluntarily,  although  they  hold  only  the  first  inti- 
mations of  a  better  existence  in  a  future  life.     And  as  far  as 
Eurip.des    m    his   poetic    art    departs   from   Aeschylus   and 
bophocles,  so  near  does  he  approach  again  when  he  speaks  of 
death  or  hfe ;  many  remarks  show  life  beautiful  and  agreeable, 

'  Come,  PI.  30.  68.  83 ;   Gerhard.-  Ap.  Vasenb.,  PI.  ,6,  ./  al.  oft 

^  Paus.y  10:  31:  9. 

*  ^W.  01.  o^.s.,  ..  1^4  £f.  5  ^au/mann,  p.  3. 


H 


^H 


iil 


30 


1  I 


i  \ 


a 


DEA  TH  AND  BURIAL  IN  A TTIC  TRACED  V  [3O 

yet  more  make  it  a  burden;  and  only  in  Euripides  do  we  al- 
ways find  verses  which  speak  openly  of  a  reward  m  the  future 
Thl  seems  to  be  making  too  much  out  of  too  h  tie.  Wh  ch 
six  of  Sophocles'  characters  he  refers  to  >s  not  clear^  If  the 
six  suicides  are  intended:  locaste.  Deiane.ra  and  A.as  had 
done  deeds  so  horrible  that  they  could  dread  nothmg  worse 
than  their  present  life ;  Antigone  preferred  a  qu.ck  departu. 

to  the  slow  agony  of  starvation,  the  most   rational  thing  She 
could  do,  independently  of  any  thought  of  a  future  hfe;  and 
Haemon  and  his  mother  yielded  weakly  to  affect.on.  .mpelled 
by  the  unrelenting  curse.    If  Oedipus  and  Herakles  are  m- 
ciuded.  both  were  worn  out  with  long  suffering.  ^^^^^JZ 
annihilation  would  have  been  welcome.     In  Eunp.des  plays 
the  AUestis  is  a  glorification  of  life  triumphant  over  death 
and  in  many  of  the  others  the  heroes  and  heromes,  w.th  no 
loss  Of  their  heroism,  consider  no  deception  too  unworthy,  no 
impiety  too  great,  if  they  may  thereby  save  the.r  hves     In 
Tschylus.  a!  far  as  his  plays  are  left  to  us  there  .s  not  one 
suicide,  no  matter  how  great  the  evil  or  disgrace.     On  the 
ontrao^,  Aeschylus  teaches  a  noble  and  dignified  res.gna  .on 
to  an  inevitable  evil ;  Sophocles,  that,  since  life  conta  ns    o 
much  of  good,  the  after-life  may  not  be  so  very  bad.  and  should 
ZL  with  equanimity;  and  Euripides,  with  his  greater^n- 
sitiveness  to  suffering  and  injustice,  that  since  We  here  h- 

„uci.  of  pain  and  sorrow,  and  the  gods  ate  just  and  gracious 

S^ere  must  be  compensation  somewhere,  and  the  only  possible 
pl^e  is  beyond  the  tomb.  These  differences  are  largely  due 
to  the  differing  temperaments  of  the  poets,  but  at  the  same 
time  their  mental  attitude  was  doubtless  in  great  part  the  re- 
flection of  progressive  states  of  thought  f--g  »h;  P^°^;^^,^ 
large  due  not  to  accident  but  to  natural  development.  Kauf 
mann  is  ready  to  attribute  all  these  better  views  of  a  future  life 
to  the  Mysteries.    But  one  must  not  be  dogmatic.    In  any 

Le  the  J  views  had  a  tendency  to  overstep  the  formal   and 
S^row  limits  of  the  Eleusinian  teachings.     We  have  seen  that 


31]  VIE  IVS  REGARDING  DEA  TH  , 

Aristophanes  and  Pindar  held  that  future  blessedness  was  C/ 
only  for  the  initiated;  the  teaching  of  Musaeus  and  Orpheus, 
as  currently  received  among  the  people,  was  to  the  same 
effect ; '  and  Sophocles,"  according  to  Kaufmann,  taught  the 
same.  But  the  Pseudo-Plato,  whenever  he  lived,  gave  them 
only  the  front  rank.  And  Euripides,  who  is  frequently  in  ad- 
vance of  his  generation,  would  lead  us  to  infer  that  goodness  /^ 

without  initiation  is  sufficient  of  itselD 

The  tomb-inscriptions  of  the  IVth  century  often  follow  the 
Euripidean  tradition,  as  this  *  from  Athens,  394  or  373  B.  C: 

ek  'A.i6a  Kare/Sa  naaiv  fiaKapiarog  i6e(r&ac. 

There  are  others,  however,  more  Eleusinian  in  tone,  as  the 
following,5  both  from  Athens,  probably  early  in  the  IVth  cen- 
tury : 

haria  fiev  kqI  adpmg  l^^i  ^^(jv  rralda  rbv  ^div^ 

and, 

acifia  fiev  kv  kSXttoic  KarSxei  r6Se  yaZa  JlTidTuwoCj 
rlwxr)  (T  lao^iow  rd^iv  l^^t  fiaKdpow. 

Speusippus  considers « that  rd^cv  fmKdpuv  is  the  same  as  xc>poc  evcs^cr., 
m  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Pseudo-Plato  gives  the  Mystae 
the  first  rank,  and  the  ^dXafim^  evaefiiuw  is  doubtless  another  ex- 
pression for  the  same  idea.^ 

Thus  then  did  death,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  natural 

impulse,  of  philosophy  and  of  religion,  appear  to  the  baffled 
and  sensitive  minds  of  the  Athenians ;  the  most  uncertain  of 
all  certainties,  for  they  fully  realized  that  in  the  midst  of  life 
we  are  in  death,  and  cord^vai  ^  is  a  frequent  term  for  "  to  live  •" 

>  P/a/o,  Rep.,  ii,  364-5.  ^Soph.  fr.,  753  ;  Kaufmann,  p.  4. 

M/r.,  744-6:  /r.,  848;  quoted  below,  chap.  II,  ad  fin. 

*  Kaibel,  26,  11.  8-9. 

*  Kaibel,  90 ;  Pregtr,  12.  e  Kaufmann,  p.  21. 

'  Kaufmann,  p.  2,  quoted  below,  chap.  II,  ad  Jin. 

■  E.  EL,  60 ;  Hec,  73 ;  Hel.,  297,  it  al,  oft. 


I  il 


i 


'I    ! 


:\    I 


,2  DEATH  A JVn  BURIAL   IJ\7  ATTIC   THAGBnV  [^^2 

coming  no  one  knew  whence,  from  god  or  fate  or  demon ;  strik- 
ing no  one  knew  whom,  for  '*  somehow  the  treacherous  and 
the  wily  the  gods  delight  in  rescuing  from  Hades,  but  the  just 
and  the  upright  they  are  ever  dismissing ;'"  leading  no  one 
knew  whither,  and  in  this  lay  its  real  horror ;  for  though  fancy 
might  indulge  in  pleasing  dreams,  though  philosophy  might 
argue  for  a  life  no  worse  than  this,  though  religion  might 

promise  blessedness  and  contentment,  the  only  certain  verdict 
was  that  "  after  death  there  await  men  such  things  as  they 
think  not  nor  expect."  ' 

1  Phil.,  448-50. 

>  Heraclitus,  fr.  ,122. 


CHAPTER  II 

CONDITION  AND  POWERS  of  the  dead 

Thk  Greeks  do  not  seem  to  have  formed  a  verj.  definite 
co„cept.o„  of  the  difference  between  the  state  of  life  and  that 
of  death.  Buchholz  has  worked  Homer's  notions  out  into  an 
elaborate  scheme.     He  says : «  "  The  psychological  principle- 

Th    "!l  IT'tv'^"^-  "'"'  fe-'-g-dwells  in  .„^  and  \^, 
he  breathable  hfe-pr„ciple  in  the  ^,,  but  the  bod^-principL  in 

H.l«    r.  Z  '  """'"''  *'  ^^'  ^'^'  t°  the  shades  in 

cist  '■    f}^^  ''^''!'^'  °^  '^'  '"-''■  '^^  '"'-^  -'J  the  ..., 
ceases  and  dies  utterly,  and  thereby  the  man  lose.s  his  con- 

scous  personality,  his  proper  e^o,  his  somato-psychic  exist- 
ence;  for  all  on  which  the  animal  and  spiritual  (i^«i,/..)  life 

u^  tmct  and  feehng,  devoid  of  all  affection,  it  continues  a  most 

m.serab  e  existence."     The  ^,,,  then,  by  no  means  corre- 

Ponds  to  the  modern  idea  of  a  soul,  being  far  less  comprehen- 

nirr  Kk"    '   u"^  '"''  '°''^'''"''  "'*'^°"'  «"'-'*te  speechfbut 
.ke  g.bbenng  bats3  or  birds,  and  revived  for  a  time  oni;  by 

ceedmgly  gloomy,  perhaps  needlessly  so.  For,  while  his  con- 
du.^ons  can  be  supported  by  reference  to  particular  passages. 
Homer  takes  no  trouble  to  be  consistent;  and  certainly  the 
sp.nts  mtervewed  by  Odysseus  retained  their  memory  and 
^^'^^l^/iAoh:  Die  Homeriuk^  SeaU.„.  m.  b.  36;  .«  iir.  b.  ,-e^..  „.  v 

33] 

33 


i 


lii 


■'i 


34 


DEATH  AISTD  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[34 


interest  in  things  terrestrial :  the  gloomy  Achilles '  at  last  re- 
joices in  the  renown  of  his  son;  Elpenor  and  Teiresias'  both 
recognize  Odysseus  without  drinking  of  the  blood ;  and  the 
wrathful  Aias,3  mindful  of  his  wrongs  at  Odysseus'  hands, 
seeing  him  from  afar,  will  not  even  approach  the  libations  in 
the  trench. 

The  soul,  shorn  of  so  much  of  its  former  glory,  would  nat- 
urally be  conceived  of  as  diminutive  in  size ;  and  so  it  appears 
on  the  vases,*  though  it  is  never  thus  represented  in  either 
Homer  or  the  Tragedians.  That  it  could  issue  from  a  small 
opening  is  no  proof  in  point,  for  spirits,  in  story  at  least,  are 
very  compressible,  and  the  full-sized  eUiS)^  of  Iphthime  passed 
easily  through  the  keyhole.s  Besides,  the  ghosts  seen  by 
Odysseus  were  probably  of  human  proportions,  for  there  is  no 

Statement  to  the  contrary.    In  a  Vlth  century  vase-painting « 

at  the  British  Museum,  the  soul  of  Patroclus  is  really  gigantic. 
The  -^xh  in  Homer  issues  from  the  mouth,^ 

leaving,  doubtless,  with  the  breath,  though  in  the  other  cases » 
where  the  life  is  breathed  out,  it  is  ^vfxbg  that  is  named,  but 
probably  interchangeably  with  fvxv-  It  could  also  depart 
through  a  wound.9  The  Tragedians,  maintaining  the  belief 
that  the  soul  issues  from  the  mouth,  made  no  attempt  at  keep- 
ing fvxv  separate  from  the  other  terms ;  and  we  find  the  ex- 
pressions," 

ovTU  Tcrv  avrov  ^vfiav  bpvydvei  ireauv, 

and,  /?,w  Unviov.    In  other  cases,  f»m  is  a  mere  concourse  of 
activities  which  ceases  with  death." 

lOJ.,  II :  540.  »0</.,  II :  S'-4.  90-6-  *'^''-  "  =  543-6- 

*  />««.•«-.•  Licy/Aes  Blanks,  pp.  75-9,  pl-  »,  " ;  GfrAarJ.-  AuserUstne  Vasm. 
aider,  pl.  198  (2),  199  (1);  tt  al.,  often,  esp.  on  white  lekythoi. 

^Od.,  4:  838-9.         'Go-hard:  Austrl.    Vasen.,  pl.  198  (l).  V/.,  9:  409- 

'II.,  13  :  654  ;  16 :  468 ;  «  <»/.  *I':  «4  =  5  'S-g- 

^Ag.,  1388. 1493.  "'<''•.  3o« ;  o^'  '034- 


35]  COI^DITION^  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

While  the  Greeks,  to  form  some  idea  of  the  soul,  compared 
It  to  a  dream.'  to  smoke,-  to  the  shadow  which  th;  sun  caTts 
on  thewall.aand  finally  adopted  as  their  favorite  term  ti: 
word  .^.^.  or  picture,  ,s.^,  it  is  .ikely  that  these  tertLs 
osmg  the,r  first  mtention  of  shadowiness  and  unreality  came 
to  denote  something  more  distinct  and  substantial.4    It  k  true 

'  wTSut      .^  °'  '"'  unsubstantiahty  of  a  spirit  asks'' 

W.It  thou  bury  h.s  „„,  ?    and  Electra  laments « that  of  Orestes 

she  has  „oth.„g  left  but  „.„... .  .„,  ,„,,     But  we  find  Sophoc  es 

on  the  other  hand  using  the  term  as  a  mournful  synonym  for 


and. 


6p&  yap  ^fiag  ovSiv  bvra^  hl%o  ttI^ 


&vi»p<j7r6s  ioTc  Tcvevfia  mi  OKid  fi6vov. 


olH  .!  [  !  °'*'  '°"'*^  '""■^^  themselves  visible  is  as 

such  manifestations  has  been  questioned  and  ridiculed  but  has 

trdeoart^dt'T''-  .°"  *'  '""*''^'^'  *^  -appearance  of 
the  departed  spirit  is  what  men  believe  might  naturally  hap- 
pen.   The  Greeks  as  a  race  evidently  thought  so  at  least  and 

ir/naT"  '  P'""°P'"'  ^'''  ^"^  '^''''  d^"'"^d  it  until  in 
late  and  decaying  times  materialism  displaced  faith  in  the  gods 

and  all  supernatural  phenomena.  Homer,  as  we  might  expect 
mentions  them  freely.  Odysseus'  visit  to  Hades  •  and  the 
glimpse  into  the  underworld  with  the  suitors,*  may  be  mere 
^ec  digressions;  but  we  learn  from  them  the  nature  of  a 

w^eo  and  Tk  "  '"'^  -palpable,  seen  and  heard,  able  to 
weep  and  speak,  but  not  to  touch  or  to  be  touched,  "like  a 

'OJ.,  II,  207-8.      »/>&/,,  Maedo,  70 ;  //..  2, •  ,00.1         .„,/  ,„ 
ir  D  '/")•"•> *j •  loo-i.       'ffictti, common. 

^.  /W.A  .„  ^,«,,  d.s  I>,u.  Mond»,  .895.         'ff„.,  ,240.  .s,  El 

W.  ..5-6;  ^.A.  ..;>.  859.  -C.^.,  11:  34-^33. 

"Ud.,  24:  6-9,  14,  9&-104. 


^ 


36 


DEA  TH  AND  B URIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [36 


III 


dream." '  These,  it  is  to  be  noticed,  were  the  souls,  the  fvxai, 
in  Hades,  whether  of  buried  or  of  unburied  bodies;  for  El- 
penor's  plaint*  does  not  accord  with  what  we  hear  of  the 
suitors.3  They  were  the  actual  spirits  of  the  dead  in  their  final 
home.  Whether  they  strayed  up  to  earth  and  appeared  be- 
fore the  waking  eye,  Homer  does  not  tell  US ;  but  the  pxf)  of 
Patroclus*  visits  Achilles  in  sleep  and  is  something  more  than 
a  mere  dream.  There  was  another  sort  of  ghost,  eidu?^,  visible 
to  the  seer  Theoclymenus,  though  not  to  the  others,* 

EUGi7Myv  6e  rrlkav  npd^vpov,  Tvleir]  61  koX  avArj 
kfikvuw  'Epe^ooSe  vnb  l^6<j>ov, 

apparitions  of  the  living  but  foreteUing  their  death.  There 
was  still  another  sort,  one  fashioned  by  the  gods  to  deceive 

people  whether  for  good  Of  ill,  but  having  no  real  connection 

with  the  person  represented  and  no  direct  effect  on  his  life ;  as 
when  Apollo,  after  carrying  off  Aeneas,  made  an  eldu^.ov  of  him 
for  the  Greeks  and  Trojans  to  fight  over  f  or  when  Athene 
made  an  dSuiov  like  Iphthime,  which,  having  cheered  Penelope 
in  a  dream,  *'  slipped  away  by  the  bolt  of  the  door  and  passed 
into  the  breath  of  the  wind,"  7  an  objective  entity  and  not  a 
mere  subjective  impression. 

In  historical  times  this  belief  in  ghosts  and  apparitions  re- 
mained substantially  the  same,  but  became  more  definite  and 
specific.  The  gods  were  stiU  held  to  create  ei6u?.a,  entities 
wholly  independent  of  the  persons  they  resembled.  Thus 
Clytaemnestra  at  one  time  denies  that  she  killed  Agamemnon, 
but  says,^  "  The  ancient  ruthless  evil  genius  of  Atreus  .  ,  . 
likened  io  the  wife  of  this  dead  man  hath  visited  him  with 
vengeance."     And  not  Helen,  some  supposed,  but  only  an 

1  Od.,  1 1 :  204-23,  391-4.       '  ^^^'^M  11:51-4.  '  ^^'^-^  24 :   99-104. 

*  //.,  23  :   65-107  ;   frequent  on  the  vases  at  the  dragging  of  Hector. 

»  Ot/.,  20  :   355-6. 

«  //.,  5  :  449-53- 

'  Od.,  4 :  795-841,  Lan^,  Leaf  and  Myers'  transl.  "  Ag,y  1500-3. 


37]  CONDITION  AND  PO  WERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

image  like  her,  was  carried  to  Troy.    This  .u.^  of  Helen^! 
interesting,  not  only  for  the  large  part  it  played  in  Greek  literl 
ture,  but  because  we  have  a  more  complete  account  of  it  thW 
any  other.    Helen  herself  speaking  of  it  calls  it  -.  I 

-.     o«^        J    1      TT  &"**'' ^^"S  ^t  etdwAw  ^uTTvow  sent 

wa<!  fnfn  -.^  A  '°  '*  f  '''^•^'"f.  a  fancy.  Its  departure' 
was  into  a.^,f,  and  ol,pav6c.  Its  unreality  and  unsubstantialitv 
then,  are  strongly  insisted  on.  On  the  other  hand  n7as 
represented  as  seeming  ver,  real.  Menelaus  dragged  it  bv 
he  ha.r  from  Troy,  saved  it  from  the  wreck,  and  hfd  it  n  a 
cave;  and  the  Messenger's  astonishmenfo  at  finding  that  it 

was  only  a  cloud  is  very  plain. 

Ofthe  apparitions  ofthose  about  to  die,  the  Tragedians   as 

tlls^uoTnthT  "^"'''"■"^'  '"*  ^^^^--^  '"  her^xtremi" 
calls  upon  the  living  Herakles  to  help  her," 

eW^  KOI  oKia.  (pdvTT&c  juoi 
aXmp  yap  IMdv  Uavov  av  yevoio  U. 

And  Pausanias"  tells  us  that  when  Teurosthenes  was  victor  at 
Olympia,  an  apparition,  ^..,«,  closely  resembling  him  aDDeared 

at  his  home  and  announced  hfs  victory.  ^  '  appeared 

Phantoms  which  appear  in  dreams  are  less  open  to  criticism 

1  thl    ;-7''"kT  ^'  ^'^  "^"^^^>-  ^"^  '^^  cfreeks  Cgh 
out  their  histoo^  beheved  them  to  be  at  least  possibly  objective 

been  only  the  common  language  of  affection,     Moreovef  their 
appearance   generally   foretold    misfortune,    as   when   Darius 


'  i%/.,  33-4. 

*^//.,  705.  1219. 
V/JiV/.,  119,36. 

'•  I6id„  joy  ff. 
»^/<r.,  354-6. 


*/^/V.,  582-6. 

^Ibid.^  -jQ-j^  750. 

8  Ibid.,  1 219,  605-7. 

"  H.  M.,  494-5. 


•  ^.  EL,  1282-3. 
«y^iv/.,  1135-6. 

•  fitd,  116,412-3,424-5. 
"  I'aus,,  6  :  9  :  3. 


ill 


t 


i 

1 


i  § 


38 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[38 


appears   to   Atossa/  and   Eteocles  sees  the   phantoms,'  h^zi^ 

iwirvii^  i^vraofi&ruv,  dividing  the  property.      The  <i>daimra,  ^vT&ajiara 

of  Achilles  and  of  her  son  appear  to  Hekabe'  as  a  premonition 
of  evil.     Clytaemnestra  calls  herself  bvap,  and  it  is  possible  she 

ghould  be  thought  of  as  seen  by  the  sleeping  Furies  alone,  and 

as  soon  as  they  awake  she  vanishes/  Dream-phantoms  are 
the  only  sort  which  Sophocles  mentions,  and  that  but  once^ 
when  he  admits  that  Clytaemnestra «  twice  saw  Agamemnon 

in  a  dream. 

The  general  belief  in  ghosts,  however,  was  so  strong  that 
both  Aeschylus  and  Euripides  bring  them  on  the  stage.  The 
calling  up  of  Darius  by  means  of  libations,  chanting  and  prayers 
to  the  x^^v^oi,  is  very  dramatic ^  and  unquestionably  is  meant 

to  represent  an  actual  materialization  of  his  Spirit.7  But  Cly- 
taemnestra.S  ^s  we  have  just  said,  is  possibly  merely  a  dream, 
visible  to  the  audience  for  stage  effect,  and  very  probably  is  no 
more  to  be  imagined  as  on  the  same  plane  of  physical  actuality 
with  the  other  characters  in  the  play  than  are  the  gods  who 
stand  in  the  midst  of  pedimental  battles.  lo  speaks?  of  see- 
ing the  ghost  of  Argus ;  but  though  she  refers  to  the  shrill 
sound  of  the  reed,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  phantom  was  per- 
ceptible  to  any  but  herself,  or  that  it  was  represented  on  the 

stage.  Euripides  is  more  bold  and  realistic  in  his  treatment 
of  stage  ghosts.  The  dduTurv  of  Polydorus'**  speaks  a  long  pro- 
logue and  very  considerately  moves  away  lest  his  mother  be 
frightened  at  sight  of  him.  The  ghost  of  Achilles  is  freely 
talked  of  as  appearing  to  the  whole  army;"  and  Admetus 
fears  lest  the   restored   Alcestis  be  some  phantom  from  the 


i/Vr.,  197-8,  518-9.        »  Sep.,  710-1. 

*  £um.y  116. 

«  Jer.,  619-22,  633-80,  686-8,  697,  etc. 

8  j5:«»*.,  94-139. 

^^Hec,  1-58. 


^Hec,  69-77,  92-5,  702-9. 

i  S.  El,  417-23- 
T  ibid.^  681-842. 

*  Pro.,  567-71,574-5- 
"/<5j^.,  37-4I»  108-15. 


39]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

dead,'  ^„^  ^,prip^_     In  1;^^  nj^^^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^  .^ 

HeSe  i"  ^'^'  ^""^  "^^"^'^"s  that  she  is  a  phantom   from 

Murderers  cut  off  the  extremities  of  their  victims  and  wiped 

he  blood  on  the.r  heads  to  prevent  their  ghosts  from  a„„oyW 

then,; 3  though  Sophocles  merely  says  it  was  for  purificatL! 
There  would  seem  to  have  been  reason  for  this  practice,  since 
we  hear  of  ghosts  evoked  to  declare  their  murderersV  But 
P^to  who  tries  to  turn  everything  to  moral  account,  says 
ghosts  are  the  souls  of  those  who  have  died  not  pure^Z 
«.^ap^f  anoXv^uaac ;  and  as  murderers  for  this  reason  are  esoeci- 

t^:r  ''-'''  -  ^-'^^  °^  »--  -  ^eep  ghosts' 

Homer  mentions  the  ghosts  of  animals,.  Orion  hunting  "  the 
very  beasts  that  himself  had  slain  i„  the  lonely  hills;"  but  the 
Tragedians  say  nothing  on  this  subject. 

Greek  story  and  legend  were  full  of  ghosts.  Pausanias 
mentions  them  many  times  and  accounts  fof  them,  if  one  Z 

soul.       He  tells  how,  up  to  his  time,  at  Marathon  they  foueht 

seekers  could  never   see  them;"  that  a  host  of  a6.Xa  dwelt  in 

the  TemiJe  of  Is.s  in  Phocis,  and  so  terrified  an  intruder  thlt 
he  died  shortly  after;"  that  the  «v.Ao.  of  Actaeon  at  Orcho 
-nus  .  troubled  the  people  until  they  performed  proper  buriai 
'/J-'"''-  •^'•/•.  7^-3.569-70. 

Vol.  vCIoff:  ^^-  ""'■•*■■  ^^-    See  also  ^y^.^^.  in  ^„„,.  ^«,.„.,,/ ^,,,<,/.. 
5  *S.  El.^  445-6. 

Apul.  Metam.,  2:  35;  Heliodor,  EtA.,6:  I4.     See  also  Mnr-   T    ' 
2;  1 :  900,  etc.  ^''•^-  ^y^^5.,  14; 

2''.-  ^--,  837  b;  J^ar„eU..   Gr^.k  Cults.  11.  j.j  ;  H.I..  569-70. 
^^,n=„^5.  .o/.«„.,4..3,,,.  ../«^.,,:3.:4. 


t   i 


\   \ 


40 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[40 


ii 


^i 


II 


rites  for  him ;  that  the  6aiiu^  of  one  of  Odysseus'  sailors  mur- 
dered at  Rhegium  annually  insisted  on  having  a  girl  sacrified 
to  him,  and  ended  his  inhuman  demands  only  after  a  wrestling 
match  with  a  famous  athlete  in  468  B.  C— but  the  hand  of 

the  priest  is  too  evident  in  this  last  phenomenon.  He  tells 
also'  of  the  occasional  appearances  of  such  heroes  as  Neopto- 
lemus,  Echetlaeus,  and  others,  at  battles  and  elsewhere.  He 
holds  too  that  phantoms  in  dreams  are  real  manifestations,3  as 
of  Pindar,  who  appeared  soon  after  his  death  to  an  old  woman 
and  dictated  to  her  his  last  poem. 

From  ghosts  to  a  resurrection  is  a  natural  and  easy  step  in 
belief  To  rise  again  was  however  a  difficult  matter  in  prac- 
tice, to  be  accomplished  only  by  the  direct  intervention  of  the 

gods : ♦ 

«t  yf  }iil  Tig  "^eov  avaerfjCEii  viv* 

though  their  power  to  intervene  was  generally  acknowledged.* 
Asklepios  especially  was  the  god  who  raised  the  dead ;  but 
for  this  Zeus  struck  him  with  his  thunderbolt,  thus  indicating 
that  it  was  not  a  right  thing  for  him  to  do.^  Henceforth  only 
by  trickery,  as  when  Apollo  cheated  the  Moirai  ^  or  Sisyphus 

the  gods  of  the  underworld;*  or  by  superhuman  force,  as 

when  Herakles  wrestled  with  Thanatos  for  Alcestis;^  or  by 
some  great  spell,  such  as  the  music  with  which  Orpheus  won 
back  Eurydice,'**  could  the  dead  be  brought  to  life  again.  To 
the  Greeks  of  historic  times  the  visible  destruction  of  the 
body  by  fire  or  decay  was  a  stumbling-block  to  belief  in  a  res- 
urrection ;  for  though  in  Homeric  days  a  goddess  might  pre- 

1  Pans.,  6:6:  7-10. 

«/W..,l:4:4;  i :  32:  S;  4J  42:4;  ^^«^'/  ^^«'' ^^^'t  35?  Thtmist.i^. 

*  Paus.y  9  :  23 :  4 ;  4 :  13 ;  4  J  26 ;  7,  8  ;  <r/  a/.  ^^  H,  M,,i\^\  et  al. 

^Alc.,2i^~9, 

•  Idui.y  122-9,  3-4 ;  Ag^t  1022-4.     A  non-Homeric  idea,  Iwanowitsch^  p.  39, 
See  Dyer  :  Gods  in  Greece^  ch.  on  .^Esculapius. 

'  Ale,  1 1-2,  32-4.         »  Phil,  624-5.        »  Ale,  1 140-2,  w  Ibid.,  3S7-9- 


41]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

serve  intact  the  body  of  some  favorite  as  of  P.f  1  ^^ 
succeeding  centuries  the  art  of  embllmL  11  u  f  "''^  '" 
parently  even  by  the  ^ods      V^T^T^^  ^^^"  ^^'^'  ^P" 

bodied  souls  fr'om  find  n,  some  2    "'  ''^T  ''''''' 

though   it  were  less   comLdious   Or  1;^^?^  ^^^f  ^' 
needs;  and  if  they  could  content  theLves^^^^^    ^  r      \ 
convenience  of  an  animal  body   whv  nnf   i  .       '"^^"^" 

plant  or  mineral?  Thus  Cadmus  and  r"  "''  ''''  "'  ^ 
formed  to  serpents'  the  wffr  f  t  ""™^"^^  ^^^  trans- 
Niobe  to  a  stoL^^u     "    to  T  '"   '   "^•^htingale,3 

others  to  like  objects  T.n  '  '""'^^  '^''''^'  ^"^  ^^"^ 
stances;^  but  Plato   thenar  ^"''   '"""''   '^"^^^^   '^' 

•hey  mos,  ..X:  ^^z^uzj:;"^'"'^ 

storied  moreo^^      of  i"  ^^         ^  ^"^^  ^'  ^-^^^     There  were 
as  He;akles,  or   taken     o   to   h""'  '""'^^"^^  '^  ^^^^^^ 

regions.     The    transt^C  of^JoTls^^*  t^^   ""T  ''''''' 
bodies  is  a  kindrerl  fh.^        ^.  '"*°    °*'^^''    ^uman 

than  the  first  of  thr...     u  ^^^  ^^^  '^^t  rather 

^  ^^-^  '9  •  3^. 

^Bac,  1330-3,  i354_6o.  ^  A  Su^    (^  .    . 

'  I'lato  :  Phaedo,  ch.  xxxi. 


42 


(  ^ 


IIP 


!  ■» 


I 


u 


DEA  TH  AND  B  URIAL  IN  A  TTJC  TRA  GED  Y  [42 

In  this  connection  arises  the  interesting  question  as  to 
whether  a  man  possessed  more  than  one  soul.  The  Trage- 
dians say  nothing  definite  on  this  point ;  but  Homer,  though 

in  the  Iliad  ■  he  says  plainly,  h  Si  la  t^xi,  "  there  IS  but  OHC  UtC 
within"  tells  us  in  the  Odyssey-  that  Herakles'  e;<!<.W  WaS  in 
ErebuL  and  himself  at  the  feast  of  the  gods.     The  Tragedians, 
however,  hint  at  something  of  this  sort,  possibly  m  the  doc- 
trine 3  of  the  ve,ec,c.  but  especially  in  the  appearance  of  Darius 
to  Atossa  in  her  dream,  a  real  objective  appearance,  which  his 
ghost  when  it  rises  does  not   seem  to  have  known  about/ 
Lucian's  expression,'  Saifmva^  ^aKapnav,  referring  to  but  one  dead 
man.  may  have  a  like  import.  In  vase-paintings  sometimes  sev- 
eral little  dduM  flutter  about  one  corpse  or  in  one  tomb.    The  ap- 
pearance of  Taurosthenes  in  a  distant  town,'  and  of  the  phan- 
toms of  the  suitors  in  the  hall  before  their  death,«  and  Megara  s 
call  for  the  «m  of  the  living  Herakles,'  these  and  similar  phe- 
nomena point  to  a  detachable  something  that  is  near  akm  to  a 
soul      This  leads  to  the  belief  in  the  "  external  soul,"  of  which 
we  hear  so  much  in  modern  folk-lore,-  and  which  was  repre- 
sented in  Greek  myth  by  the  stories  of  Nisus  and  Meleager," 

that  the  external  soul  of  the  one  resided  in  the  purple  lock  of 

hair  which  his  daughter  cut  off,  and  of  the  Other  in  the  fire- 
brand which  his  mother  caused  to  be  burned. 

The  majority  of  the  dead,  however,  never  played  the  part 
V/  of  ghosts  nor  wandered  into  other  bodies.     What,  then,  be- 
came of  them  ?     There  was  always  a  vague  feeling,  the  result 
of  a  materializing  philosophy,  that  the  dead,  even  if  still  sus- 
taining a  sort  of  life  of  their  own  so  as  actually  to  feel  the  weight 

.  71.,  «  :  569.  r.  L.M.  ^Od.,n:  601-3.  '  S.  EL,  146^7- 

*  Per.,  187-8,  681-93.  '  LucUn  :  De  Luctu,  24. 

•  See  Rouher,  11,  illustrations  on  pp.  1150,  ii47-  '  ^''"'■'  ^  =  9  :  3- 

.  Od.,  20 :  355-6.        »  H.  M.,  494-5-        "  P'-"'^  ■■  ^"^'^'^  ^"'^'''  "•  3^'- 
"  Cho.,  613-22.  604-12  ;  Paus.,  1 :  19  =  4  ;  10:  31  :  3,  4- 


43]  CONDITION  AND  PO  WERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

of  mould  upon  them,^  were  unconscious  and  forgetful  of  earth^-  <- 
a.o<>.(v„^,a«a.dvo^A^;   and    Iwanowitschs  remarks  that   thev 

?:afth::r  T^^''^^^^^'"^''^'"-  ^-^^^-'1 3 

lear.  though  operating  from  different  causes,  both  militated 
Strongly  against  these  notions.  Homer,  is  ^ot  cleaTon  this 
point  and  his  statements  are  often  contradictory  bu^the 
Tragedians  have  much  to  say.  though  their  expre  s.ons  Ire 
not  always  quite  consistent.    The  ghost  of  D^^rino  I 

perfectly  all  that  happened  up  tote  t  mf    'h     STtl  b^ 

famous  prophetic  power  seems  to  have  been  simply  his  recol- 
lection of  the  oracles  he  had  heard  before  dy^  the    m 
port  of  wh,ch  he  now  by  the  light  of  current  events  bednsTo" 

ateT: ,  th^f-  "'^^^  °'  ^'^^--nestra,^  howevt,  isTee„  y 
alive  to  al  that  is  going  on,  her  perceptive  faculties  having 
become  only  sharper  through  death ;  and  this  seems  to  ace"  rd 
with  the  general  belief..     The  dead,  if  they  were  not  conscS^s 

r   and  p^°P'^.'^'='^^'  *^"^  -  that  they  received  news  through 
•n  a  distant  land  learning  of  things  on  earth   by  the  arrival  of 

new-comers,  and  criticising  the  actions  of  the  Lng-   T^ev 

were  supposed  to  take  pleasure  i„  monuments  erectfd  inlheT 
honor,  and  by  some  considered  their  due,.^«  and  ifreturn  the 

'  A/^.,  463-4  ;   i%/.,  852-4. 

•^•^/..n59.n70;  C,o.,si7;  Tr..6o^,,  a  C.  955.  ,,.,,  „ft. 
I«>a„o^iisci.  pp.  65-6;  lU.  of  refs.  for  prayen  unanswered. 

•  Od..  ,0:  49,_5;  „ passim,-  ,t al.  . p,,_^  ^,j_^g_ 

*  ^w>w.,  94-139. 

'-^«..  54.,  65-6;  .S-.  BL,  400;  o.  C,  ,774_j;  Or.,  674-s. 

'Hrtf '  ''"'°'  "  "''  °'-     ''•  ''^'■'^''-''  ^-  ^^^S. passim. 
S.E,,,^_        '°^-.4..-3;^«-.,32<..;..,        «^„...3e^. 

""■'  3'9-«' ;  UTaiM,  7,  2.  3.  4.  ,0,  ,/  al. 


i 


% 


%r     ^ 


f  I 


'. 


Ulii 

lit    j 


BE  A  TH  AND  B  URTAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [44 

44 

pious  donors  received  benefits,  as  from  the  tombs  of  Oedipus 
at  Athens  and  of  Solon  at  Salamis.' 

But  whether  conscious  of  the  present  or  not,  they  were  gen- 
erally mindful  of  what  had  happened  on  earth;'  and  though 

sometimes  ready  to  lend  aid,  as  when  Orestes  and  Oedipus 
promise  to  help  the  Athenians '—though  Iwanowitsch  *  com- 
pares such  aid  to  that  from  modern  relics— or  at  least  to  give 
gift  for  gift,'  as  the  gods  did,  yet  they  were  most  often  thought 
of  as  ready  for  vengeance ;  as  when  Herakles  threatens  Hyllus, 
if  he  does  not  fulfil  his  wishes,' 

el  Sc  fiij,  fuvu  a'  iyt> 
Kal  vip^ev  ln>  apaioc  slffaei  jiapvc 

and  they  were  most  often  invoked  to  aid  ^  in  some  vengeful 
scheme,  as  when  Electra  prays, 

Tolg  (T  havrtoLg 
Myo  (JMVVvai  aov,  rrdrep,  rifidopov. 

The  dead  had  various  ways  of  expressing  their  displeasure. 

The  best  known,  of  course,  was  by  sending  the  Erinyes  to 

.avenge  murder,  as  in  the  Eumenides  and  the  Orestes,     But 

^when  these  were  not  in  order,  they  had  other  means,  such  as 
secretly  shedding  the  blood  of  their  victim,^  or  causing  open 
disaster,  as  did  the  drowned  Myrtilus,9  or  by  arousing  frenzy 
and  vague  fears  at  night  -    But  their  special  method  of  annoy- 

V  ance  was  by  the  sending  of  bad  dreams : " 

ropbq  yap  bp^S^pi^  <j>6(3oc 

66fiuv  bveipSfiavTig,  k^  vnvov  kStov 

^Jebb  :  Oed.  Col.  p.  xxx.  «  S,  El,  482-4.  ^t  al,  oft. 

•  Euni.,  767-74.  598 ;  o.  6'.,  4",  1520-5 ;  ^^^-^  1030-6. 

*  I-oanoivitsck,  p.  51.  *  Cho.,  93-5*.    '^  O,^' 

«  Track.,  I20I-2  ;  Ag.,  345-7  ;   Cho.,  324-6  ;  Eum.,  768-71 J  ^.  -£/-,  495-8; 
et  aly  oft. 
T  Cko.,  142-3  ;  E,  El,  677-84  ;  E,  Sup.,  1 143-5 ;  '^  ^^' 
8  S.  El,  1419-23.  •  S.  El,  508-15  ;  Ag.,  345-7. 

w  Cho.,  286-8,  293-4.        "  Cho.,  32-41,  523-50  ;  ^'  El.  459-60. 


45 


45  J  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

nviuv,  aup6wKTov  afi^dafia 
fivx6-&ev  eXoKE  nepl  ^6/3(f), 

r^acKslomv  h  doifiamv  ^apk  mrvuv. 

Kptrac  re  THivS"  bveipdrcjv 
■&e6^ev  IXaKov  vniyyvoc 
filfi<j>ea^ai  rove  yac  vkp^ev  nepi^i,,^^ 
rolg  KTavovai  f  eyKoretv. 

Indeed  dreams,  whether  good  or  bad,  as  well  as  their 
fulfilment,  were  under  the  control  of  he  dead  and  to 
the  dead  prayers  concerning  them  were  made  ■  Th° 
was  part  of  their  general  gift  of  prophecy»wh"ch  they  lav 
have  acqmred  from   their  close  ccn'ectfon  with  elZ 

elltf  Hor:   r     "?  *^^  ^y'""?.^  like  Cassandra  and 'sev^ 

ExcentT    1      °"'  *'"''  "y  anticipation  the  same  gifl. 
the  hetftTde  r  "T  "^""^  ^^  P-phecy  and  vengeance, 
TJ  A  ,t,    r         '  ^'  ^^'  ^'  ^^^'^^^^'  ^"d  occupation  went 

rchille?6  1""'''m"  °' '''  '°""  ^'''^  '■"  ^he  same  play 

Ach^lles.«  the   noblest  of  the  living,  is  still   the  noblest  of  S 

'A;fMA*of,  6f  fiera  ^6vto)v  or'  tjv 

sies  on  fi,»  K     /     rJ^  '"  ''"^""-     Cassandra  prophe- 

sies on  the  banks  of  Cocytus  and  Acheron.^     Enmity  did  not 

Per.,  219-43  ;    Paus.,  4 :  26 :  8. 

^Rohdi:  Psyche,  pp.  i9g_9^  ^^^^ 
'  Eum..  2.  4  ^ 

Anst  Fro,s,  8a.  .  p,,,,  .3.^3  .  o..,  „  :  484-6. 

^  £1,  837-4,;  p,r.,  69, ;  CHo.,  35^60;  Od..  „  :  56(^-71. 
Hec,  547-52. 

•^.T..  i.ec^l ;   Od,  .,  :  90-6;  see  also  Ag.,  ,528  ;  Od,  „  ..  57^.5. 


\ 


m 


46 


DEA  TH  AND  BURIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [46 


I      ■' 


ill! 


cease   with   life,   though   Antigone   argues   that    it    should^ 
Even  bodily  defects  were  retained,  especially  the  wounds  which 

had   caused    death,  so   these  were   carefully  closed  and  bound 
w   up  •/  and  for  a  like  reason  Oedipus  blinds  himself  3  that  he  may 
not  see  his  murdered  father  in  Hades : 

ky(b  yap  ovk  olfT  bfifiaoiv  iroioic  pJiruv 
Tzarepa  ttot'  av  TrpoaeUov  elq  "kidov  fio7.bv 
ovS"  av  Tdlaivaif  firirtp\  olv  kfiol  dvolv 
ipY  earl  Kpeiaaov'  dyx^vr/^  elpyaafiha. 

Of  course  it  was  but  natural  that  friends  should  meet  again, 

and  such  scenes  may  be  depicted  on  the  tombstones,^  but  we 
are  not  certain.  Philoctetes  s  speaks  of  going  to  search  for  his 
father  in  Hades;  Aias'  last  words ^  are  that  he  will  tell  his 
griefs  to  those  Kdru-  Creon  7  bids  Antigone, 

KaTD  vvv  hWov(f,  tL  (julirriov^  (jti'^t 

and  she  expresses  a  hope  of  meeting  her  parents  and  brother 
there «  Admetus  9  even  bids  Alcestis  prepare  a  home  for  him 
against  his  coming.    But  of  all  the  pictures  of  meeting  in  the 

lower  world,  that  one,  though  intended  to  be  taken  ironically, 
of  the  little  Iphigeneia  running  to  meet  her  father '°  is  by  far 
the  most  gracious : 

dAA'  'liftiyiveid  viv  daizaaiui 

■&vydT7jp,  (I)C  XP^i 

irarkp'  dvridaaaa  Trpbg  cjKhiropov 

Trdp'&fievju.'  dxi<^ 

TTspl  X^^P^  (3alovaa  (^Lkijaei. 

In  early  times,  when  retribution  followed  swift  on  wrong- 

1  Ant..  5 14-24.  '  ^-  ^'^  '  "7-8  \"ol->  °ft- 

s  0.  T.,  1371^ ;  Eum.,  103. 

«  Come:  Att.  Grab.,  PI.,  4^5''  "  "'■ 

s  I%il.,  I2I0-I.  •  '^'•>  8^5- 

'^«A.  524-5.  • /W..  897-901. 

»  Ale,  363-4;  see  Htl.,  836-7 ;  E.  £/.,  "44-6  ;  Tro.,  1234. 

^"Ag.,  1555-9. 


W 


47]  (CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

doing,  When  man  took  summary  vengeance  and  the  gods  were 
supposed  to  do  the  same,  there  was  little  need  of  felegatine 
punishment  to  the  future  life.  The  mere  necessity  of  dyini 
was  a  sufficient  punishment  in  itself,-  and  so  became  a  purify 
.ng  agency  to  the  soul.  I„  Homer,  severity  was  visited  only 
on  special  offenders  against  the  gods,  like  Tityus  and  Tantalus 
and  Sisyphus,'  and  not  on  merely  moral  delinquents;  with  the 
exception  however  of  perjurers,  whom  Zeus  and  the  other  gods 
punished  in  the  underworld :  3  ^ 

01  imtvep&t  Ka/i6vTa( 
dv^pi,wm^  Tivw^cw  oTii  K-  iniopm  bfidaari 
As  civilization  and  especially  philosophy  advanced,  the  pun- 
ishment of  evil-doers  receded  more  and  more  into  the  future 
life   so  that  Pausanias^  remarks   that  in   his   age  "on   the 
wicked  the  wrath  of  the  gods  falls  late  and  on  those  who  have 
departed  hence."     The  Tragedians  were  beginning  to  realize 
hat  not  only  many  wrong  acts  besides  perjury  escaped  detec- 
tion on  earth,  but  that  there  were  crimes  for  which  no  earthly  / 
puni^ment,   not   even   death,   was   sufficient,    such    as    the 

murder  of  a  near  relative  or  a  suppliant.    The  King  of  Argos 
says  to  the  suppliant  daughters  of  Danaus :  5 

eK66in-ec  v/udc  rbv  'tTav61e-&pov  ■&ebv 
(iapvv  ^vvoiKov  ^Tjadjuea^'  dUcropa, 
dg  M  kv  "AlSov  rhv  ^ai^dvr'  klev^epoi. 
Electra  not  Very  graciously  tells  her  mother,^ 

KttKug  6?MU),  fiTjdk  &  EK  y6(jv  TTori 
Tuv  vvv  dixakM^ELav  01  Kara  ^eoL 

And  the  Erinyes  assure  Apollo  concerning  Orestes/ 

v-n-S  re  yav  <j>vy(bv  oh  ttot'  eXev^epovvrac 
TTOTirpdnauig  wv  rf*  erepov  kv  Kdpg,    . 
fiidoTop'  elaiv  ov  TcdaeraL. 

I  See  p.  18,  n.  5.  for  refs.  .  Od.,  1 1 :  576-625. 

'  ^.,  3 ;  278-9;  19 :  259-60.     Iwanowitsch  denies  this  and  emends  these  lines 

S.  El.,  291-2  ;  Eum.,  95-6.  t  Eum.,  175-7,  340. 


^iv     r. 


1        ■  i 


llii 


I 


%M 


.48  DEA  TH  AND  £  URIA  L  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [48 

On   the   other   hand,   special   favorites   of  the   gods,  like 

Herakles  or  Helen,  were  taken  to  heaven  or  some  other  bliss- 

^  ful  abode,^  though  many  of  them  were  by  no  means  exem- 
plary characters.  Moral  heroism,  the  passive  heroism  of 
suffering,  seems  to  have  had  its  first  really  great  representa- 
tive in  the  Alcestis  of  Euripides ;  and  her  reward  is  simply  to 
be  brought  back  to  earth. 

The  Greeks  of  the  Vth  century  had  not  succeeded  in  draw- 
ing a  very  distinct  line  between  the  good  and  the  bad,  especi- 

/     ally  with  reference  to  retribution  in  the  life  to  come.     As  late 

as  Euripides  it  was  possible  to  say,* 

Tobq  eiryevelg  yap  ov  arvyovai  daifwveg, 
rCrv  (T  dvapc-&fjt^(Jv  fiaT^kdv  tlai  ol  ndvoty 

the  *•  nobles"  in  contrast  to  the  ''herd"  being  favored  even  in 
the  other  world.  But  the  active  and  aggressive  minds  of  the 
Greeks  were  not  content  with  being  wholly  the  playthings  of 
fate.  That  there  must  be  some  means  of  influencing  the  future 
and  unseen  world  by  the  present  and  visible,  was  felt  in  very 

early  times.  In  Homer's  day  this  influence  seemed  to  be  ex- 
erted by  the  dead  body  over  the  departed  soul,  and  proper 
burial  rites  insured  a  happy  passage  to  the  land  of  shades, 
\/  while  their  neglect  condemned  the  soul  to  perpetual  wandering.3 
How  deeply  this  feeling— for  in  historical  times  it  could  have 
been  nothing  more— was  engrafted  in  the  very  fibreof  the  Greek 
soul,  is  seen  in  the  insistence  on  at  least  a  formal  burial,  such 
as  that  for  which  Antigone  was  ready  to  sacrifice  her  life ;  *  in 
the  laws  lasting  into  late  times  concerning  the  burial  of 

strangers  washed  up  by  the  sea  or  otherwise  found  ;s  and  in 
the  much-practiced  custom  of  adoption  ^  by  which  a  man 
secured  proper  burial  and  the  subsequent  offerings  and  atten- 
tions at  his  tomb.     This  idea  must  have  entered  the  Hellenic 


^  See  p.  41,  n.  8,  for  rcfs. 
*Sep.,  1026-41;  et  al. 
^Gardner  and  Jevons,  p.  550. 


^Hel.y  1678-9.  *Od,  11:51-6. 

^Paus.,  2 :  1 :  3;  10 :  5  :  4 ;  ^/  «/. 


49]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

49 
mind  while  it  was  still  in  an  early  and  formative  stage     But 

as  the  Greeks  grew  more  spiritual  in  their  ideas,  and  recog- 
nized the  soul   as   not  the  possession   but  the  master  of  the 

body,  they  perceived  that  some  action  by  the  soul  itself  before 
death  was  necessary  to  insure  future  happiness.  This  gave 
rise  to  the  Mysteries  and  to  much  of  the  teaching  of  the  early 
philosophers,  to  say  nothing  of  the  strolling  priests  whom 
Plato'  criticises  as  "persuading  not  only  private  persons  but 
even  cities  that  forsooth  there  are  purifications  and  cleansings 
from  unrighteousness  through  sacrifices  and  childish  pleasures, 

not  only  for  the  living  but  even  for  the  dead,  which  they  call 
the  Mysteries"  of  Musaeus  and  Orpheus,  "which  will  release 
us  from  evils  there;  but  for  those  who  do  not  sacrifice  terrible 
things  are  waiting."  At  Athens  these  sacrifices  and  purifica- 
tions took  a  definite  and  regulated  form  in  the  Eleusinian 
Mysteries,  of  whose  great  influence  we  have  spoken  above » 
and  initiation  into  them,  which  was  in  general  open  to  all  was 
considered  the  key  to  future  blessedness.3  Plato  again  criti- 
cises this  point  of  view,  i^^^^  ^l  Uy.ra^<^r^a  r^  ^^^^iv.v.  ^c  hlr^^ 
rov  Mcnov  xp6vov  fierd  to  ^e(Jv  didycma,  SC.  ^x^.      Sophocles  says  : « 

6>f  rpig  67i/3ioi 
KElvoL  jipoTuv  01  TavTa  Sepx-^kvTe^  reXn 
fi6?iova'  eg  "AiSov  rolq  6k  yap  fidvoig  hel 
Cvv  icTi,  Toic  aXXoiai  Trdvr'  f/cel  KUKa. 

Kaufmann  claims  this  as  Sophocles'  general  belief,  but  Iwano- 
witsch  says  Sophocles  recognizes  neither  reward  nor  punish- 
ment in  the  future  world,  and  that  this,  therefore,  is  only  a 

tribute  to  the  Eleusianians.^  Kaufmann  is  probably  right  for 
not  only  was  this  the  belief  of  Aristophanes,  Pindar,  and 
Others,  with  whom  Sophocles  is  classed,  but  the  expressions 

^»  ^^ato :  Rep,  ii,  364-5.  2  See  p.  28.  »  Phaedo,  81  a. 

*See  Hym.  Ham.,  5  :  480-2;  Pind,  fr.  137  /?;  inscr.  quoted  by  Kaufmann,  2, 


^Soph.^fr,  753. 


^Iwanowitsch,  pp.  5 1,  53. 


\\  \ 


II 


'  I 


1 1! ; 


1 


'!!! 


Hi    ti        >< 


CO  ^£^  TH  AND  BURIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA GED  V  [50 

about  the  "  great  aether,"  quoted  above/  seem  to  indicate  two 

contrasting  places  whither  the  soul  of  man  may  go  j  and  it 
seems  probable  that  the  division  was  made  along  the  line  of 
those  depx^evreg  te?.v,  that  is,  the  initiated.  Polygnotus'  painting » 
is,  as  it  were,  bounded  by  Eleusinianism,  for  while  friends  are 
enjoying  each  other's  society  and  men  and  women  are  carry- 
ing on  their  ordinary  avocations  or  rehearsing  some  notable 
event  of  their  lives,  at  one  end  a  lady  who  had  introduced  the 
Mysteries  into  one  of  the  islands  is  receiving  honor  therefor, 
and  at  the  other  those  who  had  mocked  the  Mysteries  are 
being  punished. 

We  learn,  then,  from  the  Tragedians  of  only  three  classes  of 
sinners  who  receive  punishment  in  the  future  world ;  the  un- 
initiated, particular  offenders  against  the  gods,  and  murderers, 
^  with  the  last  of  whom  traitors  were  probably  classed,  for  their 
bodies  received  the  same  punishment  of  being  cast  out  un- 
buried.3 

With  Socrates  and  Euripides  came  definiteness  in  the  new 

doctrine,    that   goodness    of   itself,    purity  of    the    soul,    inde- 

V  pendent  of  external  forms,  was  the  only  true  path  to   eternal 

happiness.       om  Iotlv  dvdpl  d-ya^o)  kukov  ovdkv  ovte  ^(ovtc  ovte  reT^vrijaavTi^ 

are  Socrates'  words;*   and  Euripides,  though  narrowing  the 
application  a  little,  almost  echoes  them :  * 

bariq  6e  rot)c  TEKdvrag  kv  (iio)  ak^si 
hS'  earl  koX  Cwv  Kai  ■&avd)v  i^eoZf  0fXof. 

It  is  true  that  Plato  in  another  place,  putting  into  the  mouth 

of  Socrates  a  very  similar  sentiment,  adds,  Qomp  ye  Kai  naat 

UyeraL^  but  there  is  little  of  it  known  to  us  in  the  earlier  lit- 
erature.    Euripides  7  has  not  a  great  deal  to  say  on  this  sub- 
ject, but  what  he  says  is  very  plain : 
1  See  p.  27.  ^P^^^'  10:28-31. 

8  O.  C,  406-7  ;    PL  Laws,  838  b;  Sep.,  1013-24;  et  al. 

♦  PL  ApoL,  41  c  ;  €t  al.,  oft.  *  £-  A  848,  //•  1-2. 

•  Fl.  Phaedo,  63  c.     See  Geddes-,  Phaedo  of  Plato  (1885),  note  on  this  pas- 
sage.    '  Ale,  744-6.     See  Iwanowitsch,  p.  72,  n.,  for  Euripides  as  an  Orphic. 


51]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 


51 


t\  6e  n  mm 

TrXiov  ear'  dja^oig,  tovtuv  fiere^ova' 
"Aidov  vvfj.<j)Tfv  irapedpevoig- 

and  the  omission  of  any  reference  to  the  initiated  as  a  favored 
class,  except  when  Herakles  somewhat  jocosely  assigns  his 
having  seen  the  Mysteries  as  the  reason  why  he  was  able  to 
bring  up  the  dog,'  is  significant.  As  for  fuiKapiaro^  a  IVth  cen- 
tury  inscription  gives  a  man  this  epithet  because  he  had  saved 
three  tribes,  without  any  reference  to  initiation.' 

The  question  whether  the  Greeks  ever  arrived  at  a  clear  be- 
lief in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  is  not  yet  settled.  It  is  l^ 
true  that  even  on  Dipylon  tombstones  from  Athens  and 
Eleusis  we  find  a  sort  of  immortality  hinted  at.  Kaufmann^ 
quotes  a  Vth  century  inscription  which  he  calls  "  the  oldest 
Greek  epitaph  in  which  the  soul  is  clearly  pronounced  im- 
mortal : " 

KOLvbv  ^epae(f>6vt/g  ndaiv  exeig  ^dXafiov, 
oojfia  fiEv  hM6e  aov,  Aiovvaie,  yala  aalvizTEL 
irVXVV  Ss  aHvarov  koivoc  ^xei  ra/xiag. 

The  Tragedians  do    not  commit  themselves  definitely.     The 
best  that  Aeschylus  ♦  can  say  is  : 

TEKvov,  ^pdvTjfia  Tov  ^avovTog  ov  6a/id- 
Cei  nvpog  fia^Epd  yvd-&og, 
<f>aivEi  &  vGTEpov  opydg' 

and  Euripides'  speculations  is  only  more  vague: 

6  vovg 
rwv  Kar^avdvTuv  f//  nh  ov,  yvmrjv  (T  ix^i 

d^dvarov  eig  d^dvarov  al-&ep'  euneacjv 

and  elsewhere  ^  he  says  : 

6  vovg  yap  ^fiuv  iariv  h  EK&arLi  ■&e6c' 

while  Sophocles  7  rather  questions  the  whole  matter : 

'  ^'  ^'*  613.  8  ATatM,  26. 

'  ^«'"-»  2784,  //.  5-7-     See  Kaufmann,  p.  2,  for  further  references. 

*  Cho.,  323-6.  ^Hel.,  1014-6.        ^E.fr.  1007.  '^.  C  998-9. 


i  (  1 


w 


11  'I 


III 


i 


' ' 


52 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 

olf  eyiii  ovSe  rrjv  Trarpbc 
tfwxvv  av  olfiai  Cotaav  avrenzeiv  kxtLV 


[52 


though  we  have  seen  that  he  speaks  of  the  reward  of  the  ini- 
tiated as  ;fjv.  Pericles  gives  a  hint  in  the  same  direction  in  his 
famous  funeral  oration."  Plato,  as  we  may  infer  from  pass- 
ages quoted  above  and  many  others,  apparently  believes  in 
immortality,  but  the  arguments  he  brings  forward  to  prove  it 
^  are  by  no  means  convincing,  and  Cicero  in  the  Somnium 

Scipionis,  takes  him  to  mean  only  a  limited  and  by  no  means 

endless  duration.  Indeed,  immortality  is  quite  beyond  the 
grasp  of  finite  minds,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  by  no 
means  susceptible  of  proof;  but  a  belief  in  the  soul's  immor- 
tality is  not  thereby  precluded. 

^Plut.  Peric,  8. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   OTHER   WORLD   AND   THOSE   WHO    DWELT   THERE 

Since  it  was  felt  that  the  dead  were  in  existence  some- 

where,  we  are  prepared  to  find  much  speculation  as  to  their 
abode  and  companions. 

But  first  a  word  should  be  said  touching  the  journey  of  the 
soul.  The  journey  of  the  body '  to  its  last  resting-place  may 
have  affected  the  phraseology;  but  death  as  a  journey  is  too 
trite  and  too  natural  a  figure  to  need  justification  or  illustra- 
tion.' It  has  been  claimed  3  that  the  position  of  the  body  dur- 
ing the  prothesis,  with  its  feet  toward  the  door,  was  typical  of  *^ 

this  journey.  When  we  remember  that  what  testimony  we 
have  from  the  monuments  4  goes  to  show  that  in  the  proces- 
sion the  body  was  carried  head  foremost,  this  position  at  the 
prothesis  would  be  full  of  significance,  did  we  not  reflect  that 
whatever  fancies  may  have  grown  up  later,  both  these  posi-' 
tions  were  the  most  natural  and  convenient  for  the  purpose  in 
hand.  In  Homer  the  journey  is  but  a  crude  instinct.  The 
souls,  gibbering  like  bats,  somehow  flutter  away  to  Erebus  5 

Later,  the  likeness  to  birds  becomes  more  apparent,  assisted  U 

perhaps  by  such  myths  as  that  of  Philomela,  or  the  tradition 
of  the  Memnonides.^  On  a  Sicilian  vase  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum,7  above  the  head  of  Procris,  who  is  just  slain  by  Cephalus, 

'  ^^^.»  609-10 ;  et  al  «  Ale,  262-3 ;  ei  al  oft. 

^Blumner:  Leben  u.  Sitten,  II,  76. 

^Baumeister,  III,  p.  1943;  I,  p.  727  ;  Gardner  and  Jevons,  p.  363. 

*0^.,24:  1-14.  «/'^«J.,  10:31:6. 

''Millingen  :  Ined  Mon.,  Ser.  /,  />/.,  14. 


if 


111 


54 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[54 


flies  a  bird  with  a  human  head.  Some  such  idea  may  have 
been  in  the  mind  of  Theseus  when  he  says '  of  his  unhappy 
wife: 

■k7]6tjii'  eg  "Aidov  Kpanrvov  opfiijaaad  fioi. 

On  the  vases,*  especially  the  Attic  white  lekythoi,  above  the 
dead  person  or  his  stele  frequently  flies  one  or  more  little 
black-winged  creatures,  generally  held  to  be  the  soul  of  the 

1^  departed ;  while  on  a  vase  from  Pikrodaphni,  inside  the  mound 
of  a  tomb  four  of  these  tiny  beings  are  fluttering  about.3  On 
a  black-figured  amphora  ^  of  the  Vlth  century  in  the  British 
Museum,  flying  over  a  ship  is  the  ghost  of  Patroclus  furnished 
with  large  wings  like  those  of  an  eagle.  A  bird  is  also  some- 
times oflered  s  at  a  tomb  or  flies  ^  over  it. 

This  little  soul,  curiously  enough,  becomes  confused  with 
the  child  Eros,7  and  may  be  the  prototype  of  the  Nike- Eros « 

which  appears  on  late  hero-chapel  and  Persephone  vases. 
The  interesting  question  arises  whether  the  dual  meaning  of 
the  word  v^^a:^,  soul  and  butterfly,  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
attribution  of  wings  to  the  soul ;  but  ^wx^  meaning  butterfly  is 
not  found  in  early  writers,  and  may  be  a  late  development ;  and 
Passow  tells  us  that  its  accent  was  possibly  ■^ixn,'^  while  Furt- 

^Hip.,  828-9;  Or.,  674-6;  E.  Sup.,  1142;  O.  7!,  175-8;  Ion,  796. 

spottier:  L.  B.,  PL  4;  Rayet  et  Collignon,  pp.  233,  235  (figs.  86,  87);  Roh. 
inson  :  Cat.  Gk.    Vases,  p.  165  ;  Roscher  :  Lextkon,  II,  US©;  ei  al 

»  A  then.  Mitth.,  16,  p.  379. 

*  Gerhard:  Auserl.   Vasen.,  PI.  198  (l). 

6  Pettier. '  L.  B.,  PL  4,  p.  146  (no.  49)  ;  Cat.  Vases  in  Br.  Mus.,  Ill,  D  69; 
IV,  F  336. 

»  Hamilton  Collection,  III,  30  ;  Cat.   Vases  in  Br.  Mus.,  IV,  F  333. 

'  Pottier  :  Z.  B.,  PI.  2;  Roscher,  II,  p.  1151  (fig). 

8  Genick:  Gr.  Keratnik,  PL  7  ;  Milling  en  :  I,  M.,  I,  /»/.  16;  et  aL 

9 Passow:  Worterbuch  der gr.  Sprache  (1857),  s.  v.  i/n>;t^,  3  and  5  ;  see  also 
Liddell  and  ScoH,  S.  V.  t^vxh- 


55] 


THE  OTHER  WORLD 


55 


wangler  says  that  the  earliest  known  representations  of  Psyche 
that  ,s  m  the  Second  and  First  centuries  B.  C,  show  h^; 
with  the  wmgs  of  a  bird  and  not  those  of  a  butterfly.  On  the 
other  hand,  on  a  white  lekythos  in  the  British  Museum^  from 
Eretna,  420  B  C,  a  youth  is  offering  in  a  net  something  Zt 
closely  resembles  a  butterfly.  And  in  a  grave  of  Mycenae 
there  was  found  a  miniature  pair  of  scales  of  gold  leaf,  on  one 
of  which  was  stamped  the  figure  of  a  butterfly  3 

But  travelling  with  wings  was  not  realistic  enough  for  the 
popular  mmd-  and  just  as  the  shadows  of  early  demon! 
worship  faded,  and  the  other  world  approxin^ated  in  fts  fancied 
appearance  to  this,  so  the  modes  of  reaching  it  became  m7re 
hke  the  earthly  methods  of  travel.     In  HoL,  notXlT 

Sv^r  T^  "^7^"  '""''-^  ^"^  ''  ''''  -cntionef  rthe 

ct  if  and  7a  ."^"''  ""^^^  ""^^'^^^^^  ^"^^"^  the  lower 
classes  and  worked  ,ts  way  up  into  literature  •  for  though 
firmty  established  in  the  Vlth  centu^^,^  neither  A^lZsnor 
Sophocles  makes  any  clear  allusion  to  it 

wotTal'^dTn^'^"^^'^"''  "'  ^^.Wd....  the  fer^^  of 
by  a  'chts  of  sS^^^^^^    ''''''-'  ''''-''-  ^  -'  ^-t  -^-^^ 

kalev6l''Axhovr^;iel0eTac 
rav  vaiaroAov  fieMyKpoKov  ^eopiSa, 
Tdv  aoTi(Brf  '7r62,7u^i^  rav  dvdTuov, 
rrdvSoKov  elg  a<pav7j  te  x^paov 

•  Numbered  V  u  ,  ™  '        "'■  ^^'^■'  "•  ^'3-4,  but  no  refs. 

,c     >        ■  .       '  isountas  and Manatt  d   ioc 

•Souk  without  winps-  M«n    r.,.j    ti  n       """>  P- '^S- 

If'/,^"''  '■  "■  ^'"""'»'  »'S>'i>-.g  from  Paus.  lo :  28:  2. 
^  ■«>«.«-.•  Z.i?.,  p.  44,  ^,„fs. 

4?..  .558  ;  .r««l.  ..  ford  "  by  Vcrratl.  •  Sip.,  856-60. 


eg  DEA  TH  AND  BURIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA GED  V  [55 

On  the  Dipylon  monumental  vases  often  appears  a  ship,' 
which  is  variously  interpreted,  but  which,  together  with  the 
tombstone  relief  of  the  warrior  Democlides,"  may  well  have 
had  some  reference  to  this  ^eupk  of  souls,  and  this  sacred  ves- 
sel in  its  turn  to  that  other  which  in  legendary  times  carried 
the  sorrowful  Cretan  sacrifice,  and  during  whose  annual  ab- 
sence no  condemned  soul  might  be  sent  forth  from  earth.3 
In  Euripides  we  hear  not  only  of  the  voyage,*  but  of  Charon 

himself  with  his  boat,s  which  is  always  a  rowboat, 

rdv  &  dvdaTi/jxrv  riicvcjv 
Xdpuvog  lirtfiivei  iz^Ara. 

Though  the  boat  is  often  called  two-oared,^  on  the  vases  the 
ferryman  stands  holding  but  one  oar,^  or  rather  pole,  Kovr<5f,* 
much  as  the  ferryman  of  to-day  does  on  the  shallow  English 
rivers.  In  the  Alcestis  9  he  is  a  rude,  impatient  fellow,  appear- 
ing before  the  eyes  of  the  dying  lady,  with  Thanatos  instead 
of  with  his  usual  companion  Hermes,  and  calling  to  her 
to  hasten.  The  obolos  for  his  vavkov '°  is  not  mentioned  by  any 
of  the  Tragedians,  and  by  the  testimony  of  the  cemeteries  " 
was  of  very  rare  occurrence  in  early  and  classical  Attica. 

But  since  for  the  living  the  most  natural  mode  of  travel  was 
by  land,  on  foot  or  horseback,  in  this  way  too  the  dead  were 
generally  pictured  as  journeying  to  their  distant  home ;  and 
Hermes," 

Kfi^v^  liiyiare  rwv  dvu  re  /cat  Karcj^ 


*  Brueckner  und  Pernice^  pp.  I52-3.  *  Conze^  PI.  122. 

»  PI.  Phaedo,  58  a,  b.  *Z  A.^  667-9;  H.  M.,  427. 

^  H.  M.^  431-2-  ^Alc,  252,  444  ;  Paus.,  10 :  28:  I. 

^  Alc.^  361 ;  Dumont  et  Chaplain  :  Or.y  I,  11.  34  ;  Baumeistir^  I,  p.  378  \ 
Gardner:  Sc.  Tombs  He  I.,  p.  31 ;  Pottier :  L,  B.,  PI.  3;  Lecuyer :  Terres 
Cuites  Ant.,  I,  PL  T2. 

»  Ale,  254 ;  et  al.  »  Ale,  252-6. 

^^  Lucian  :  De  Luctu,  9.  "  Brueckner  u.  Pernice,  pp.  1 87-8. 

*'  Cho.f  165  (placed  after  123  in    IVeiPs  text). 


THE  OTHER  WORLD 


57] 

was  both  protector  of  travellers  and  guide  of  departing  souls ' 
H.searhest  office  in  this  latter  connection,  was  that  of  Ser 
.litTJ  '°t        '"  "°'"""  ^'"" '  '""^  >^^t  libations  bSe 

rsi:;si:s;:^°"'^^^  onhi.  Aiascansato  .„n  hi.  t: 

kjoKu  S"  dua 
nofiTcalov  ^^pfifp,  xUv'lov  ei  fie  Koifiiaar 

and  probably  the  line/ 

<^^  TOl  KlKlfjOKQ  Tbv  aUwTTVOV 

is  addressed  to  him,  if  aU^^s  rather  than  „;,„._«  be  the 
correct  reading.      In   the    late  twenty-fourth    book' of  the 
Ojlyssey,  when  Sleep  and  Death  have 'become  re::gni/ed  a 
bro  hers,  Hermes  uses  his  sleep-inducing  wand  to  lead  the 
Tewr     *''  ^"'f  -  ^Hades .  and  becomes  their  gu!de  and 

comes  ;r;J\       T-P'""''  ^^  ^"'■^^'  """^^^  -«,  he 
comes  w  th  Persephone  to  lead  away  the  soul,'  or  with  Hades 

receives  .t ;  O  a„d  to  meet  Hermes  is  to  die, 

as  was  said  of  the  slain  Nisus-  It  is  he  who  with  the  other 
chthoman  gods  brings  or  sends  up  the  shades"  and  with  them 
or  m  the.r  stead  helps  to  vengeance  for  murder  " 

Ihe   question    arises   whether   the    Chthonian    Hermes   is 

"s,  but  m  the  Tragedians,  the  evidence  seems  to  be  that  he  is 
-  see  -~..,  pp.  99-100.  for  epithets  of  Hermes  in  the  T^^edians. 
>T'I  '  '* '  "^5 '  '*'  ""'"""'•  "I-  ^'  ^93  and  refe. 

■^t.f  031—2.  .     _ 

8  zr  '  ^'  ^'*  ^578;  see  below. 

ff«^a„„  (,827), MUcA,ll  (,S^),  Wunder  (,832),  rf al. 

edJr^'  (18..),  aHH,  (.8.3).  Sc^„.i^  (.8.6).  i./„^^„  (.859),  and  n.ost 

'Od  y  ,.,0;  see  C.  Perrot:  S,l.  d.  la  Mori,  p.  ,08,  n. 
O.  C,  i547_8.  ,^ 

"  i-to.,  622.  11  ^,  ,      _ 

„^^  "at;.,  124.6;  Per.,  620. 

cho.,  i_2,  727  J  s,  ^/.,  ,10-8;  Cho,,  124-7. 


m 


58  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGED\  [58 

not.  In  the  latter,  Hermes,  son  of  Maia,  is  once  invoked,^ 
not  however  as  x^^^oq  or  'Koin^bq,  but  for  the  quite  earthly  pro- 
tection of  Orestes  in  his  wily  scheme  of  vengeance ;  while  the 
Hermes  of  the  dead  is  almost  always  designated  by  one  of 
these  epithets.'  Plato  3  makes  Socrates,  when  about  to  die, 
speak  of  going  Trapa  ^^ubq  hX-kfvqy  as  if  a  different  set  of  gods  existed 
in  the  other  world ;  and  furthermore,  on  a  red-figured  stamnos* 
in  the  Vatican  we  find  both  forms  of  HermeS  together,  the 
Olympian  and  the  Chthonian,  engaged  in  conversation.  In  view 
of  this,  the  Yaq  'Koi  KoL  Tapr&pov^  may  very  well  be  the  god  whose 
function  is  to  fly  forever  between  earth  and  Hades ;  he  it  is 
who,  as  the  Argus-slayer,  could  most  readily  still  the  fierce 
Cerberus,  and  as  god  of  sleep  could  give  eternal  sleep ;  and 
lastly,  since  Hermes  tto/zttoc  and  /}  veprkpa  ^edg  are  supposed  to  be 
standing  close  at  hand  (1.  1 548),  and  the  prayer  begins  to  the 
latter  (1.  1556),  not  only  would  the  final  invocation  to  Hermes 

complete  the  chiastic  arrangement  so  dear  to  the  Greek  heart, 
but  there  would,  on  the  other  hand,  be  something  very  strange, 
after  calling  upon  all  the  chief  x^6vioi,  in  omitting  Hermes,  one 
of  the  most  important,  and  one  who,  besides,  is  supposed  to 
be  present.  That  the  lines  could  not  be  addressed  to  Thanatos*^ 
is  clear  from  the  fact  that  he  has  a  different  genealogy,  that  he 
is  never  called  upon  in  the  Tragedians  to  give  sleep,  that  he 
apparently  never  himself  descends  into  Hades  and  therefore 

would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  dog,  and  that  the  miracu- 
lous departure  of  Oedipus  would  make  a  prayer  to  Thanatos 
singularly  inappropriate. 

On  the  sepulchral  reliefs  7  and  vases,^  the  dead  man  is  often 

» S.  El,  1395-7.  *See  refe.  above.  »  PI  Phoido,  63b. 

*  Gerhard:  Auserl.  Vasen.,  PI.  240  (i)  ;  see  (2)  also. 

6  O,  C-.,  1574-8- 

•The  Scholiasts  are  divided  as  to  who  is  meant;  see  MitcheWs  Sophocles 
(1844),  note  to  11.  1574,  1578.     For  Thanatos  see  below,  p.  65  If. 

1  Come,  ri.  90,  92  (no.  380),  131  (no.  682),  et  al. 

«  FasseHi,  II,  182  ;  Hamilton  Col.,  II,  15  ;  III,  33  ;  *'  ^^• 


59]  ^^^  OTHER    WOKLD 

59 

represented  in  the  hat  and  cloak  of  a  traveller,  sometimes  with  ^ 
the  addition  of  spear  and  shield,'  and  occasionally  accompanied 
by  his  htde  slave  to  carry  them,  a  motif  that  clearly  points  to 
the  journey  of  death  with  its  attendant  dangers.  Beside  the 
youth  often  stands  his  horse,'  which  further  emphasizes  the 
journey  he  ,s  to  take,  and  is,  like  the  traveller's  hat  and  cloak 
ma  measure  a  symbol  of  death.     The  horse  in  its  chthonian 

relations  played  a  large  part  on  the  tombstone  reliefs  of  the 
Spartans;  3  and  a  favorite  Homeric  -  epithet  for  Hades  was 
^6..^,  Hades  of  the  goodly  steeds,  probably  with  reference 
to  the  rape  of  Persephone.  Demeter,  too,  in  her  Eleusinian, 
that  IS,  her  chthonian  character,  in  Arcadia  is  closely  con- 
nected  with  horses.s  Pausanias^  gives  the  legendao^  account 
of  the  burial  of  two  horses  with  Marmax;  and  Euripides  ^ 
speaks  of  the  sacrifice  of  a  horse  at  the  tomb  as  an  Egyptian 

custom.    We  remember   the  horses  slain  at   the  p^re  of 

Patroclus;3  and  the  bones  of  horses  have  been  found  in  early 
graves..     All  of  which  shows  that  the  horse  was  the  animal  ^ 

s  r  dLT  '"'■^  *'  "■^"*-  ™"  '"'"'>'  «>"-'«' 

There  is  one  whole  series  of  monuments"  of  a  little  later 
date,  m  which  horses  play  a  conspicuous  part,  the  lar^e 
funeral  vases  of  the  IVth  century  adorned  with  the  so-callfd 
marriage  scenes,  in  which  the  bride  and  groom  are  tj^pified  by 

by  Persephone  and  Hades.      It  is  more  likely  however  that 
'  ^<^««^  PI'  49.  ^%  (no.  366),  93.  147  (no.  627),  ./  al. 

26^7Zf'""''  ''''  "''  ^^"''^^'^   ^'''•'"'^^^  ^---^  "'  '90;  III, 
»  Furtw&ngler,  in  Athen.  Mitth.,  1882. 

*//.,  5  :  654,  et  al;  see  Autenrieth's  Homeric  Dictionary,  s.  v. 
•  Pans.,  8 :  25  :  4,  7-10  ;  8  :  42.  •  Paus.,  6 :  21  :  7. 

"^  Hel.,  i2c8.  8  T7 

'      ^  •-^-^.»23:  171-2. 

Tsounias  and  Manatt,  p.  152,  et  al. 
'"  The  «  Apulian  Vases  "  of  the  IVth  century. 


6o  ^^A  TH  AND  B  URJAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [6o 

the  carrying  away  of  the  soul  by  death  is  intended.  For 
some  reason,  perhaps  because  of  the  migration  from  one 
home  to  another  implied  in  both,  perhaps  because  of  the  con- 
trast between  the  marriage  festivity  and  the  funeral  mournful- 
ness,  perhaps  because  of  some  forgotten  mysticism  reaching 
back  into  barbaric  times,  the  Greeks  were  fond  of  coupling 
marriage  and  death  together.  To  give  avrl  yanoio  rd(j)av  is  a 
favorite  threat  in  the  Odyssey;^  and  Diomedes'  taunt  to  the 
amorous  Paris » that  he  should  have  "  more  birds  than  women 
around  him,"  and  the  sad  remarks  concerning  the  slain,  that 
"  they  were  lying  upon  the  earth  much  dearer  to  vultures 
than  to  their  wives,"  both  point  by  irony  to  death  as  a  sort  of 
marriage.  In  Dipylon  times  we  find  the  loutrophoros — an 
amphora  with  a  long  neck  and  tall  handles  especially  conse- 
crated to  carrying  water  for  the  bridal  bath— appearing  in 

great  numbers  upon  tombs,  and  having  always  a  marriage  or 
a  funeral  scene  painted  upon  it.-*  A  funeral  scene  on  a  mar- 
riage vessel  would  have  been  of  evil  omen ; «  consequently  vases 
thus  adorned  must  have  been  intentionally  prepared  for  the 
tomb,  and  the  presumption  is  strong  that  those  with  wedding 
scenes  were  made  for  the  same  purpose.  And  since  these  are 
the  only  two  sorts  of  scenes  hitherto  discovered,  it  naturally 
follows  that  wedding  scenes  must  have  been  considered  pecu- 
liarly appropriate  as  a  variant  for  funeral  scenes,  and  therefore 

full  of  meaning.  Loutrophoroi  on  tombs  were  common  at  all 
periods  in  Athens;^  and  in  Demosthenes'  time  had  apparently 
become  the  sign  that  the  deceased  was  unmarried.^  That  this 
however  could  not  always  have  been  its  general  signification 
on  Athenian  tombs,  we  must  conclude  from  the  inscriptions  ^ 

1  O^.,  20 :  307  ;  gf  al.  *  //.,  "  :  395- 

s  //.^  1 1 :  161-2.  *  Collignon^  in  Amer.  Jour.  ArcA.^Xy  p.  407. 

6  See  above,  p.  22.  •  Brueckncr  u.  Pernice,  pp.  145-6. 

»  Demos.y  1086,  18;  if  the  reading  and  our  understanding  of  it  be  correct. 
•C.  /.  ^.,  II,  3»  1731- 


61]  TI/B   OTHER    WORLD  ^ 

and  reliefs  on  the  tombstones  themselves.  For  instance  one 
stele'  shows  a  loutrophoros  between  two  sphinxes,  and  above 
a  relief  representing  two  men,  both  named,  apparently  father 
and  son.  On  another,  a  stone  loutrophoros,'  we  find  in  the 
relief  three  men,  one  of  them  quite  old,  and  a  woman  all 
named,  apparently  a  family  group.     On  still  another,3  there  is 

an  elderly  man  clasping  the  hand  of  a  young  lady;  the  differ- 
ence in  their  ages  makes  the  relationship  of  brother  and  sister 
unhkely;  the  lady  must  be  either  the  wife  or  the  daughter  of 
the  man.     On  another  stele  4  we  find  what  is  certainly  a  family 
group:  a  lady  sitting  with  her  child  beside  her  clasping  the 
hand  of  her  husband  who   is   dressed  for  a  journey    while 
behind  him  stands  his  old  father;  below  is  a  Siren  beating  her 
head,  while  at  the  bottom  is  a  loutrophoros  whose  lip  and 
handles  were  probably  painted.     All  of  these  and  many 
similar  ones  are  from  the  Vth  and  IVth  centuries  at  Athens 
In  the   Tragedians   the   connecting  of  marriage  and   death 
becomes  veiy  marked.     Not  only  is  the  dwelling  of  the  dead 
frequently  referred  to  as  ^d^^or,  "  bridal  chamber,"  or  ;..^dc 
which    IS    almost    invariably    the   women's    apartments,   but 
Antigone  calls  her  tomb,5  6  w^^eiov,  "  bridal  chamber,"  and  says 
she  will  be  married  to  Acheron^  (here  standing  for  Hades) 
^Axip<n^cvvfu^evau;  Creon  advises  7  Haemon  to  let  r^  ^azd'  h  ^AcSov 

Tiv6e  W,j(l>skiv  TLvi  But  to  whom  did  he  refer  as  rcvi  ?  Certainly 
not  to  his  son,  though  we  might  infer  that  the  latter  was  the 
groom  from  the  messenger's  words  s  a  little  later,  when  he 
nnds  him  dead  beside  Antigone, 

rd  WjLupiKo, 
rklTi  "hixlav  6eDmloq  elv  "Aidov  66/iotg. 


1  Conze,  PI,  214  (no.  1074). 

'  <^^«w,  PI,  56  (no.  208). 
^Ant,,  891. 

M«/.,  654;  ffec.,612. 


*  Contt,  Pi.  130  (no.  728). 

*Cm^, /y.  94(no.  383). 
M«/.,  816;  /.  A.,  1399. 

^Ant.,  1240-I  ;  Tro.,  445;  Med.,  985. 


62 


DBATU  ANV  ttVKiAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[62 


Hi 


The  bridegroom  was  Hiidcs : 

Agamemnon  xayi'  of  his  daughter;  and  Uter*  he  exclaims, 

w^ffrrr^^vtt  bcing  thc  technical  term  for  giving  in  marriage  and  $0 
employed  by  Polyxene.J  'Jah  w/Mmdt'^  kfth  6i^,  Such  expres- 
siort-s  were  used  not  merely  of  maidens  but  of  married  women 
as  well;  *AUvr ptpf^fT nrxrxfdv^,  sdys  Pyladei*  of  Helen;  and  they 
were  used  even  of  men,  for  Megara,  after  naming  the  brides 
she  would  have  chosen  for  her  sons,  continues: 

ifioi  ^  46k(i%iq  XBVTf>6'  dtcrpioc  ^po^. 

I  Iccatc,  as  was  filling  at  the  soul-marriage,  carried  the  torch ; 

says  Cassandra.^  The  myrtle,  too,  which  was  especially  sacred 
to  Aphrodite,  belonged  equally  to  death,  and  was  laid  00 
graves ; '  and  Aphrodite  herself  had  a  close  connection  with 
tombs  and  the  underworld.*  The  later  epigrams  m  the  An- 
thalifgy^  have  much  that  is  pathetic  to  say  about  the  bride  of 
HadcJi ;  but  wc  have  an  early  Attic  inscription,'®  one  from  the 
Vltli  century,  tK;»t  is  instructive : 

iyrl  yifu^  itafA  4tAi¥  f»&f»  A^JTOli^  4m|^ 

She  was  to  be  called  Kore  forever.     Now  Korc,  the  Maid,  wa$ 


»///r..  36S. 

»//.  if.,48o-4i  Ant,,  1204-5. 

•^^mrmrit^  II,  p.  652;  r«A.  on  p(K  754,  653,  ^99. 
♦  ^lattm*  Amlh^g:);  Bk.  VII,  B^  13,  iSa,  //  a/. 


•  ^Tr^.,  32J-4. 


^JCaiM.^ 


63]  ^-^-^  Oyy/iSfA-  WORLD  gj 

the  £avorite  name  for  the  mystic  bride  of  Hades,  oft-received, 
snatched  away  unwilling  from  the  bright  earth  to  his  gloomy 
abode.  We  are  hardly  going  too  fer  when  we  *ec  in  Kore  the 
type,  the  mystic  representation  of  every  departed  .soul.  If  this 
be  so,  at  once  the  connection  between  marriage  and  death  be- 

comes  clear  and  fitting,  and  the  loutrophoros  with  its  wedding 
scenes  finds  its  mast  cnduringly  appropriate  place  upon  tlie 
tomb.     The  magnificent  Apulian   vases*  mentioned  abov^ 
probably  served  the  same  purpose  and  were  manufactured 
with  Uiis  end  in  view.    They  are  large  and  heavy  amphorae 
with  a  weaitJi  of  adornment ;  and  tJiough  they  present  a  great 
variety  of  .Mibjectj,  it  is  likely  that  all  refer  more  or  les» 
directly  to  death.     Many  represent  the  **  deified  dead  "  stand- 
ing or  sitting  inside  a  small  heroon,*  ^mctimes  with  the  at- 
tribute or  name  of  i?omc  hero  attiicKcd.  while.  outi»klc.  friends 
are  bringing  offerings  of  all  sorts.     Other*   repr^wjnt  daily 
occupations,  a  w^^  frequent  on  tombstone  reliefs  and  the  white 
lekythoi.     But  many  are  of  the  so-called  marriage  scenes.J 
The  general  scheme  is  the  four-horse  chariot  \\\  which  stands 
I  fades  with   one  arm  around  Persephone,  who  turns  to  bid 
tirewdl  to  her  mother;  Hermes  and,  frequently,  Dionysus  ac- 
company the   chariot,  and    Hecate  awaits   it  witli   torches. 
Sometimes  Nike-Eros  flics  above.    Tlicsc, as  we  have  seen,  all 
c>ccc|>t  possibly  the  last,  belong  to  the  chthonian  cycle,  and  it 
is  much  more  natural  and  Hellenic  to  sec  in  these  a  variation 
of  the  scheme  of  the  "  deified  dead,"  than  the  ai)otheosis  of 
some  human  wedding,  which  could  far  better  be  typified  by 
an  Olympian  or  heroic  bridal,  than  by  that  of  the  sinister 
powers  of  decay  and  oblivion.     Of  rarer  occurrence,  but  con- 

» The  rmot  colle^tioo  of  (hew  is  in  (ik.  Vaw  Poem  4  of  Br,  Mac, 

-Mom.  uui^^  su  /V.  4«  ^/  ^ifh^m ,^  in^.  iV.„.,  I,  lAi   /:^4.-7, 
Auuri,  K.,,^^.,  yy.  ^  ^.j^  ^,,  ,^^^^    ^,.  ^,^  ,.W4*f./,  n  Jll  (I  illll  ii)r 


I 


III 


.! 


m 


64 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[64 


veying  the  same  fundamental  idea  is  the  carrying  away '  of 

the  soul  of  Herakles  by  Athene,  or  of  a  youth  by  Nike ; '  or 
even,  by  Laius,  of  Chrysippus,3  whose  early  and  pathetic  death 
would  make  his  abduction  an  especially  appropriate  subject. 
And,  still  more  in  point,  on  a  late  vase  we  find  Nike  driving 

through  the  air  in  her  four-horse  chariot,  met  by  Hermes  and 
a  youth,  apparently  the  soul  of  the  dead  boy  whom  a  lady  sit- 
ting below  amid  her  friends,  is  holding  in  her  arms.* 

But  among  the  populace,  whose  tendency  is  always  to  make 
things  concrete,  Persephone  stood  out  as  a  distinct  figure. 
In  Homeric  times,  befitting  the  age,  she  is  gloomy,  the  august, 
ayavfi  UepaeipdvEia,  who  sends  up  ghosts,  ddwAa,^  and  takes  under- 
standing from  the  dead.^  Hers  is  the  grove  of  the  sad  wil- 
lows and  poplars/  and  it  was  from  fear  of  her  that  Odysseus 

at  last  hurriedly  departed  from  Hades.^  On  the  Dipylon 
tombs,  the  house  of  the  dead  is  hers,  dcjfxa  UepaetpdvTj^j*  koivw  Uepae- 
ip&vrjq  irdaiv  i^^^c  ^dXafKyv.^^  Likewise  in  the  Tragedians,  she  receives 
V  the  dead,"  who  are  hers  by  lot,"  and  she  has  the  power  to  send 
them  back  if  she  wishes.*3  To  her  Electra  prays  for  help  in 
vengeance,'*  and  it  is  to  her  that  Macaria  is  offered/^  But 
though  dread  and  powerful,  she  is  not — perhaps  owing  to  the 
influence  of  the  Mysteries — a  repulsive  being ;  on  the  contrary, 

Euripides*^  calls  her  Kalliirmc  avaaea  and  TCLv  xpvco(jTS(i>avmf  KSpav]  and 
to  her  in  common  with  her  mother  the  narcissus  and  crocus '7 
were  sacred.'^ 


1  Mon.  Ined.y  IV,  Fl.  41  j  et  al.^  oft.     By  Nike,  Passerii^  III,  276. 

2  De  la  Borde  :   Col.  des  Vases  Gr.y  I,  PI.  75;  £t  al. 
8  Gerhard:  Ap.   Vasenb.,  PI.  6. 


*  Passer iiy  III,  274. 
^Od.,  10:  494-5- 
8  O^.,  1 1  :  634-5. 

ioA7wM,3S.11.3-4. 

"  Or.,  963-4. 

»*  Cho.,  490. 

^'  Or.y  964;  7<?«,  1085. 


6  Od.^  II:  213. 
'  Od.y  10:  509-11. 
»  Kum.j  426. 

»M«/.,  893-4;  i4/f.,  851-2;  a  c,  1547-8. 

"  H/ie.,  962-5  I  Ale,  357-9. 
**  Her.f  408-9,  600-1.  2 
"  O.  C,  681-5. 


^*  See  Iwanowitsch^  pp.  93-5,  for  epithets  of  Persephone. 


65]  THE   OTHER    WORLD  g- 

The  name  of  Hades  is  of  frequent  occurrence  whether  as  a 
god  or  a  place.  But  first  let  us  consider  Thanatos,  a  sort  of 
double  or  offshoot  of  Hades,  or  rather  of  Hermes.  That  he 
had  no  altars  and  received  no  gifts, 

\mo(;  i^€Qv  yap  Odvaro^  ov  66pmf  epg, 

ovS"  av  Ti  -d^vuv  ovd'  knianivduv  dvfof, 
ovtT  ioTi  PcjfiSg,  ov6e  Traiavl^erai,^ 

shows  that  he  was  not  a  true  cult  god,  but  only  a  myth ;  as 
Buchholz^*  says,  a  personification  "  not  of  lifelessness  but  of  the 
departure  from  life  to  death."  In  Homer  the  personification 
is  only  beginning,3  and  finds  its  highest  form  in  the  beautiful 
picture  of  Sleep  and  Death  bearing  away  Sarpedon's  body.*  In 
the  Tragedians  we  find  the  personification  complete;  and  as 

Charon  the  rude  ferryman,  boorish  and  unkempt,  is  the  death- 
myth  of  the  populace,  so  Thanatos,  the  gentle  physician,  the 
all-powerful  healer,  is  the  death-myth  of  the  cultured  classes. 
When  Asklepios,  for  meddling  with  the  latter's  prerogatives  of 
destruction,  was  slain  by  Zeus,5  it  would  seem  as  if  some  of  the 
virtue  of  the  a/ivfwvog  ivrvpog^  had  descended  on  his  victorious  rival : 

0)  edvare  Uaidv,  fir]  fi  dTifiT^ayg  fidXeiv^ 
fidvog  yap  el  (W  rav  dvTjKearuv  naKuv 
larpd^^  aXyog  6'  ovdh  anrerai  veKpov, 

says  Aeschylus  ;7  and  Sophocles  : « 

a?i?,'  icr&^  6  ■&dvaTog  ?Af)aTog  larpbg  voaurv 

and  Eunpides,9 

Kai  fWL  edvarog  Jlaidv  IWoi. 

Macaria '°  claims: 

rh  yap  ^avelv 
Kanaif  fihyujTov  (pdpfxoKov  vofii^erai. 


U 


^A.fr.  i6Z,Herm. 

*//.,  16:  853. 
^Alc,  3-4,  122-9. 
^  A.fr.  250. 

•^»>->  1373- 


^Buchhoh,  III.  a.,  317-8. 
*  //.,  16;  454. 

«  Il.y  4  :    194. 
8  S.  fr.  636. 
w^y^r.,  595-6. 


ill 


66 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[66 


^7'\ 


THE  OTHER   WORLD 


67 


Aias'  in  mental  anguish  calls  upon  him, 

<1)  Odvare  6dyare,  vvv  /z'  ETriaKeipai  fwXSv   , 

and  likewise  Philoctetes,'  when  tortured  with  bodily  pain, 

d  -Odvare  ^dvare^  ttq^  del  Kah)i)fievo^ 

while  the  Chorus  ^  in  Oedipus  at  Colonus  call  him  the  helper 

of  all  alike,  b  S  tmKovpog  laoriXearog. 

The  Thanatos  of  the  Alcestis^  is  not  at  all  the  true  Thanatos 
of  the  poets  and  the  inscriptions,  but  a  stage-villain  introduced 
to  be  worsted  by  the  hero  Herakles.  The  motif  of  the  play 
required  some  such  character,  and  neither  Hades,  Hermes  nor 
Charon  was  appropriate.     Thanatos  alone  remained,  and  in 

one  respect  was  eminently  fitted  for  this  part;  since  his  work,, 
unlike  that  of  the  others,  does  not  take  him  into  the  lower 
world,  but,  like  that  of  his  brother  Hypnus,  has  to  do  with  the 
body  rather  than  with  the  soul.5  Many  things  show  this.  On 
the  vases  we  never  find  him  pictured  in  lower  world  scenes,, 
nor  in  company  with  Hades  or  Charon,  but  sometimes  with 
Hermes,^  with  whose  office  he  was  closely  associated;  he  is 
generally  employed,  alone  ^  or  with  his  brother  Hypnus,  in 
carrying  away  the  dead^  or  in  laying  them  in  the  grave.^ 

There  is  nothing  in  either  Homer  or  the  Tragedians  that  does 
not  accord  with  this.     In  the  Alcestis  he  is  the  priest  of  the 

1  Ai.y  854. 

'  Phil.y  797-^.  Why  Dindorf  ^fx.%  not  use  capitals  here  as  in  the  previously 
quoted  passage  is  not  clear. 

'  O.  C,  1220-3.  ^Alc.^  28-71. 

^  Buchholzy  III.  a,  317,  classes  him  as  epichthonian. 

^Gerhard:  Anserl.  Vasen.^  PL  121 ;  Dumont  et  Chaplain:  Ctr.  Gr.  Pr.y 
1,27. 

'  Br.  Mus.  Gk.  Vase  E  463,  Kantharos  from  Nola,  400  B.  C.     (Rare.) 

^Jahrbuch  des  Inst.y  1895,  ^^'  2;  Gerhard:  Anserl.    Vasen.,  PI.  121 ;  et  al. 

^Dumont  et  Chaplain:  Cir.  Gr.  Pr.^  I,  PL  27,  29;  Robert:  Thanatos, 
PL  1,2;  et  aLf  frequent 


dead,'  hpfj  ^avdvruv,  who  shears  their  locks  with  the  sword,  the 
servant  appointed*  Kreiveiv  bv  dv  xpv-  Qdvarog  ^vfzopaioT^g,  Homer3 
calls  him.  In  the  Tragedians  he  carries  the  bodies  to  rest,* 
MvaTog  TTfxxpipuv  a^fiara  riKvuv^  and  lays  them  in  the  tomb  s 

and  a  pre- Persian  inscription  reads,^ 

dv  iddvaroc  [SaKpvjdeic  ica^ixec. 

Being  to  so  great  a  degree  a  divinity  of  the  upper  world,  it  was 
quite  within  the  bounds  of  poetic  possibility  that  Herakles 
should  meet  and  wrestle  with  him.  He  expects,  with  good  rea- 
son, to  find  him  hovering  around  the  tomb  7  to  drink  the  blood, 
and  it  is  only  if  unsuccessful  with  him,  that  he  proposes  follow- 
ing Alcestis  to  Hades  and  rescuing  her  thence,  where  she  is  out 
of  the  hands  of  Thanatos  and  in  those  of  Persephone.^  But  as 
the  common  conception  of  Thanatos  was  too  dim  and  ill- defined 
for  stage  purposes,  Euripides  gives  him  a  rough  and  boorish 
character,  like  that  of  Charon,  but  with  wings  and  a  sword, 
and  brings  him  on  the  stage  hallooing  and  swaggering,  vaunting 
his  power  as  a  priest,  but  owning  himself  a  servant,  and  by  his 
ill-bred  lack  of  feeling  and  greedy  avarice  richly  meriting  the 

contempt  and  dislike  that  Apollo  bestows  upon  him.  Robert 
says  9  that  when  Alcestis  sees  him,  she  sees  some  one  but  does 
not  know  who  it  is.  Rather,  she  stes  two  daemons  and  recog- 
nizes them  both  very  clearly,  Charon  the  boatman,  who 
stands  at  his  oar  and  calls  to  her ;  ^°  and  the  "  black-browed, 
winged  Hades,"  who  leads  her  away  and  by  his  presence 
darkens  her  eyes  "—both  offices  of  Hermes.  In  this  last  we 
see  the  triple  character  which  the  Alcestian  Thanatos  bears : 
that  of  Hermes  who  gives  sleep  to  the  eyes  and  leads  the 

*  Ale,  25,  74-6. 

'  0.  t:,  942. 

8/l/r.,8so-3. 

'M/f.,  259-63,47,  268-^. 


»  Ale,  49.  8  //.,  13  :  544.  4  J/^a'.,  1 1 1 1. 

^RTaibel,  15,  1.  2.  t  Ale,  843-5,  "42. 

^Robert:  Thanatos,  p.  35.  ^^Alc,  252-6. 


68 


DEA  TH  AND  BURIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y 


w 


[68 

soul  away ; '  that  of  "Kcdaq  in"  6<ppvai  KvavavyeoL  ^Unuw^  and  that  of 
Thanatos  himself,  indicated  by  the  wing^s,  TrrEfH^dq,  which  he 
wears  as  Saifidvuv  r^  Koipdvif),^  for  though  the  daemons  are  often 
winged,  the  great  gods  are  never  so.3  Nowhere  in  the  Alcestis 
is  Charon  confused  with  Thanatos,  but  wherever  mentioned  ^ 

he  keeps  his  own  place  as  ferryman,  while  Thanatos  takes 
the  part  usually  assigned  on  the  vases  ^  to  the  Chthonian 
Hermes,  who,  by  the  way,  is  mentioned  only  once  in  this 
drama,  where  with  Hades  in  the  lower  world  he  receives 
Alcestis.^ 

Thanatos,  then,  as  we  have  seen,  heals  the  ills  of  life  by 
releasing  the  soul  from  the  body ;  Hermes  is  guardian  and 
guide  on  the  strange  and  untried  journey;  and  Charon,  re- 
placing the  latter  in  Euripides,  ferries  the  souls  across  the 
river  of  death. 

The  true  god  of  the  dead  was  Hades ;  his  was  the  house 
^where  they  dwelt,7  his  the  realm  through  which  they  wandered.^ 
He  was  the  receiver  of  the  dead,9  veKpodFyfiovoq^  the  treasurer  of 
souls,'°  ra//taf,  to  whom  in  fierce  irony  Aias  sends  his  sword  also." 
Because  of  his  greed  he  is  called  0(5viof,"  and  death  is  compared 
to  a  net,'3  as  if  like  a  fisherman  or  a  hunter  he  goes  about  seek- 
ing whom  he  may  ensnare ;  and  only  rarely  and  grudgingly 


^  See  above,  p.  56  fF.  ^  Alc.^  1140. 

'  Robert :   T^anatos^  p.  34,  quotes  Kaibel^  89,  1.  4,  as  the  only  other  place  in 
which  Hades  is  called  winged. 

*^/^.,  361,439-41. 

^  Benndorf:  Gr,  u.  Sic,  Vasend.,  PL  27.  i;  Lecuyer :  Terres  Cuites  Ant.t  I, 
PI.  T2  ;  et  al. 

^Alc.f  743-^.;  the  only  place  in  Eur.  where  he  is  mentioned,  Iwan.^  p.  100. 

'  Ant.y  804 ;  et  al.y  oft.;  iv  or  cf  "Afdov  is  very  common. 

*  Hades  is  the  name  in  the  Tragedians  for  the  ivhole  realm  of  the  dead. 

®  Pro.y  153  ;    Trach.f  1085  ;   et  al.,  oft.      See  Rokde,  p.  192. 

w  Kaibel,  35b.  "  Ai.,  658-60. 

"  O.  C,  1688  ;  often.  "  Med.,  986-7  ;  Bac,  958  ;  et  al. 


69]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  c^ 

does  he  let  a  soul  return  to  earth."  He  is  supreme  in  his  own 
land,  where  he  rules  even  x^^px,  ^eOv,^  t^^i^  5,^^  ^Id...^,*  paadev  r 
kvtp<^v*'  6  napd  rbv  'A^epovra  ^e6^.^  There  he  examines  concerning 
deeds  done  in  the  body  :^ 

fdyag  yap  'Aidrig  karlv  Mwo^  Pfmuv 
SeXroypa^  6e  it&vt  erroTrg,  <f>pevr 

and  like  another  Zeus  judges  crimes  .-7 

KOKel  diKd^ei  TdjurrXaK^fia^',  ug  Myog 
Zevg  dAJlof  ev  Kafwvaiv  vardTOQ  dUac 

but  he  justifies  the  innocent,^  Acdc  vsKpor.  c<^ripo,.  Plato,9  as  well  as 
Pindar  and  Orpheus,-  insists  on  judgments,  but  gives  them 
over  into  the  hands  of  Rhadamanthys  and  Minos,  of  whom  the 

Tragedians  say  nothing;"  while  Homer"  gives  them,  as  far 
as  they  go,  to  the  Erinyes,  who  in  the  Tragedians '3  are  only 
helpers  of  Hades,  as  was  the  nether  Dike  '*  presumably.  A 
IVth  century  inscription's  mentions  Sophrosyne  as  Hades' 
daughter. 

In  Homer,  Hades  is  a  dread  and  mysterious  power,'«  but 
loses  dignity  when  he  becomes  anthropomorphic.'^     He  was  V 
never  a  cult  god,'^  except  in  Elis  where  he  had  once  rendered 
service    in    some    mythological   battle.'9     Though    properly 

1  Per.,  649-51,  w.  689-90  J  et  at. 

»  O.  C,  1559-60. 

^S.  El.,  184. 

M.  Sup.y  230-1  ;    O.   C,  1606. 

»/»/.  ^<;>.,  II,  366a. 

"  Except  Cyc,  273-4,  which  is  not  to  the  point. 
"/A,  19 ;  259-60;  see  above,  p.  47,  with  n.3. 
"  See  below,  p.  76  ff.  "  Ant.,  451-2. 

''Od.,  11:  21^-  11,^  y,  845,654;^/ a/. 

"^/.,  20:   61-5  5   5:  395-7  i  ^f  «/.     See  BuchhoU,  III.  a,  329-35,  for  the 
Homeric  Hades;  iTvanoTvitsch,  pp.  90-3  for  epithets  in  Homer  and  the  Trage- 

"^Rohdi,^.  11^.  ^^  Pans.,  6:  25:  2. 


*  Hec.y  2. 

*  Per.,  629. 
*Eum.,  273-5. 

"  Ro^<^^f  pp.  566  ff.,  420  ff ,  500  ff 


"  RTaibel,  34. 


i 


III 


70 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


[70 


aaTvavdog,^  prayers  *  were  made  to  him ;  and  we  hear  in  a  poetic 
or  ironic  way,  of  his  songs  3  and  dances.*  The  dead  were  his 
victims;  5  and  Clytaemnestra  gave  Agamemnon  the  third  blow 
as  a  votive  offering  to  him.^     Like  Hermes  he  is  sometimes 

called  upon  to  send  the  sleep  of  death ;  ^ 

evvacov  evvaaov  oiKtrntTtji,  fji6p<fi 
Tov  jueXeov  <f>^iaag' 


and: 


.8 


eWe  fJLE  Koifiiaeie  rbv  Svadaifiov* 
'Atdov  fieTiatva  v^Krepd^  r*  avdyKa- 


but  it  will  be  seen  that  this  is  done  through  agents,  uKinriTtn  /i6p(^ 
and  avdyKaf  which  very  probably  stand  for  Hermes.     In  another 

instance  we  find  him  sending  death  by  the  sword  given  to 
Aias,  and  for  this  Teucer  calls  him  the  fierce  workman.^ 

Hades,  then,  in  the  Tragedians  is  an  autocrat  with  unlimited 
sway  in  his  own  dominion,  greedy  of  sovereignty,  but  just  in 
the  exercise  of  his  power,  never  appearing  on  earth,  but  trans- 
acting his  business  there  by  means  of  his  ministers. 

The  whole  realm  of  the  dead  was  called  Hades,  or  the  house 
of  Hades.     Neither  Homer '°  nor  the  Tragedians  were  very 

sure  whether  it  was  situated  below  the  ground  or  in  the  ex- 
treme west.  The  favorite  Homeric  term  is  Erebus,"  a  word  of 
Semitic  origin  and  meaning  "  evening  "  or  "  west,"  but  rather 
rare  in  the  Tragedians,"  showing  that  it  had  no  strong  hold  on 
the  language.    The  earliest  native  Greek  idea  was  probably 


1  Ale,  424. 

».s>/.,  868-9;  -£•  ^^',  145;  ^^«/- 

^AIc,  25-6,  74-6;  H.  M.f  451-3. 
'  Trac/i»f  1040-2. 


a  a  C,  1558-64;  f/al 

*  E.  Sup.,  75. 

^Ag.,  1385-7;  Phom.,  1575-6. 

8  ^j)).,  1387-8. 


«  Ai.y  1035. 

"  Od.,  II :    I-I2;  //.,  20:  61-2  ;  see  Buchholz,  I.  a,  49-52,  33^-8. 

*i  //.,  16  :   327  ;  et  al.,  oft. 

"  Or.f  176  •  et  al.;  Iwanowitsch^  p.  89. 


71]  THE  OTHER  WORLD  ^j 

that  the  land  of  the  dead  was  underground,  as  we  may  judge 
from  the  great  "  beehive  "  tombs  built  for  them  there,  and  from 
the  fact  that  there  was^  no  consistency  in  orienting  the  dead, 
either  in  the  Mycenaean  age,'  or  in  Dipylon  or  classical  times 

in  Athens.'    As  all  existing  hero- chapels,  beginning  with  the 

famous  Harpy  Tomb,  open  to  the  west,  and  the  lonians  we 
know  were  noted  for  burying  the  dead  so  that  they  might  look 
toward  the  setting  sun,3  it  seems  likely  that  these  eastern 
Greeks  borrowed  the  idea  from  some  of  their  non-Hellenic 
neighbors  and  passed  it  on  to  their  brethren.  Homer,  because 
of  his  Ionian  feeling,  elaborated  this  theory  most,  and  perhaps, 
also,  because  it  was  new ;  but  the  old  was  stiU  strong  in  men's 
minds.  The  Tragedians  speak  of  Hades  as  kanipov  ^tovf'  but 
h  Kara  x^woq  'kiSag  IS  a  much  more  common  term  ; «  under  Orphic 
influence  there  is  an  inclination  to  place  the  abode  of  souls  in 
the  upper  air.^  As  we  have  seen,7  this  realm  is  not  a  pleasant 
place,  but  secret,^  dark,9  full  of  groans,^°  vague  and  dreadful. 

But  the  Periclean  Greeks  were  not  without  descriptions  of 
the  land  of  the  dead  from  the  hands  of  the  poets.  They  had 
not  only  the  Odyssey  but  the  more  specialized  epics  of  the 
Minyad  and  the  Nosti^"^  the  former  of  which,  Pausanias  "  teUs 
us,  Polygnotus  followed  in  general  in  his  great  painting  at  the 

Lesche.  These  descriptions  appealed  to  the  imagination 
rather  than  to  the  belief  of  the  people ;  as  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  Aristophanes  in  the  Frogs  adheres  to  them  much 
more  closely  than  do  the  Tragedians.     Still,  some  such  gen- 

*  Tsountas  and  Manatt,  pp.  97,  89. 

'  Brueckner  u.  Pernice,  see  Plan  of  the  Cemetery. 

'  ^/«A  Solon,  10.  *  O.  T,  178.    Cf.  kvwxiow&va^  O.  C,  1559. 

» PAoen.,  810 ;  At.,  571;^/  al.         «  See  above,  p.  26. 

''See  atx>ve,  p.  15.  8  o.  C,  1552;  et  a/.,  oft. 

*  ^i.,  394  ;   ei  at.,  oft.  >«  JVo.,  433  ;  et  at. 

"  For  fragments  of  these  see  Kinkel:  Epic.  Graec.  Frag.,  pp.  215-7,  52-6. 
"  Pans.,  10  :  28 :  7. 


il 


I    ^1 


'  ! 


'   i 


I  1 


72  I>^A  TH  AND  B URIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [72 

eral  sketch  must  have  been  in  the  mind  of  the  latter.  In  the 
prayer  for  Oedipus/  we  have  the  plain  of  the  dead,  and  the 
Stygian  dwelling,  and  the  dog  growling  at  strangers,  but  in 

the  next  breath  a  prayer  for  eternal  sleep.    The  rivers  of 

Erebus  were  a  striking  feature  well  worked  out  by  Homer,* 
especially  the  Styx,  that  terrible  name  by  which  the  gods 
swore  their  most  solemn  oaths.3  The  Tragedians  frequently 
mention  the  Styx,  Cocytus  and  Acheron,  and  Sophocles 
\^  speaks  of  'A/da  'Kaymivm  U^ivaqy^  but  their  typography  is  by  no 
means  clear ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  words  really  mean 
little  more  than  woe  and  wailing. 

In  Homer,  Tartarus  and  Erebus  are  carefully  distinguished  j 

the  former  is  for  overthrown  gods  and  situated  as  far  below 
Erebus  as  heaven  is  high  above  the  earth.s  Aeschylus  still 
regards  Tartarus  as  a  place  of  punishment  for  gods,^  but  makes 
no  clear  distinction  between  it  and  Hades ;  ^  nor  does  Sophocles,' 
nor  Euripides.9  Whether  or  not  the  Homeric  epics  teach,  as 
V  Iwanowitsch  holds,  that  there  is  no  future  punishment  for 
mankind,  the  Minyad,  followed  by  Polygnotus,  insists  strongly 
that  there  is  ; "  and  the  Tragedians  hold  with  them.  Aeschylus 
tells  of  the  threats  of  the  Furies,"  of  the  "  other  Zeus  "  who 

punishes  crimes,"  and  of  the  punishment  of  Sisyphus.'s  So  too 
Euripides  tells  of  Tantalus  and  Ixion.'*  They  speak  also  very 
clearly  of  future  rewards  for  those  who  are  good  and  pious,  as 

>  O.  C,  1556-78.  *  Od.,  10:  513-5- 

"See  Buchhoh,  III.  b,  317-8,  for  Homeric  rivers. 

*5.  El.,  137-8  ;  see  Sep.,  690,  855  ;  Per.,  669  ;  et  al.     See  Iwanowitsch,  pp. 
84-5,  for  refe. 

*  //.,  8 :  13-16.    See  Buchhoh,  I.  a,  52.  •  Pro,,  219-21. 

T  Pro.y  1028-9,  et  al.  '  O.  C,  1389-90. 

•  Or.,  265.     See  Iwanowitsch,  pp.  86-7,  for  refe. 

»o  Paus.,  4  :  33  :  7  ;  10  :  31  :  9-I  i  ;  et  al.  oft. 

"  Eum.,  2lb'9>-*j^  ;  et  al,  "^.  Sup.,  230-1,  415-6- 

w  A.  fr.  221.  "  Or.,  982-5  ;  H.  M.,  1298. 


73] 


THE  OTHER  WORLD 


71 


we  have  seen.'  The  best  that  Homer  could  do  for  ordinary 
people  was  to  let  their  tUiSka  wander  over  the  gloomy  asphodel 
meadows  ;=»  but  by  Plato's  time,  under  the  influence  of  Musaeus 
and  his  son,  the  just  and  pious  were  supposed  to  spend  their 
time  in  pleasure,  which  the  populace  imagined  to  consist  in 

feasting    and    drinking,    iiynakuEvoi  KoklLarov  aptrvq  ^cadbv  iikBrrv  al6viov.^ 

But  no  feasting  scenes,  otherwise  than  the  simple  offering  of  a 
basket  of  cakes  or  fruit,*  appear  on  Athenian  tombstones  until 
a  late  date,  though  on  Spartan  and  Boeotian  they  are  common. 
The  Tragedians  say  nothing  of  feasting ;  rather,  poetic  tradi- 
tion  developed,  out  of  the  picture  of  the  Elysian  plain,  "where 
life  is  easiest  for  men,"  and  to  which  Menelaus  and  Helen 

were  to  be  transported,s  the  fancy  of  the  "isle  of  the  blessed  :"^ 

Kal  T(p  7r?nvr/Ty  MtviPieu  i^ewv  Kapa 
uaKapcjv  KaroiKElv  v^a6v  egti  fidpaiuov 

Achilles  was  to  be  there,  and  Cadmus  and  Harmonia.7  Homer 
had  placed  it  at  the  end  of  the  earth  and  presumably  in  the 
west;  but  Euripides  locates  it,  once  at  least,^ 

AevKTjv  Kar'  aKTrjv  hrog  Ev^eivov  ndpov. 

Farnell  9  says  there  is  a  legend  of  the  Chthonian  Cronus  ruhng 

over  the  isles  of  the  blest  and  the  departed  heroes.  In  the 
Orphic  Argonautica^''  there  is  said  to  be  in  the  fabulous  N.  W. 
Europe,  near  the  golden-flowing  Acheron,  a  city  Hermioneia, 
m  which  dwells  ytvn  SiKaiuTdTuv  avOpoTrw,  omv  dnoip^ifihoig  aveotg  vavloLO 
rirvKToi. 

*  See  above,  pp.  28,  50. 

*0d.,  11:  539.  8  />/.  ^^^^  11^  ^6^  ^^ 

*  Conze,  PI.  93;  common  on  funeral  vases.     See  also  H,  Von  Fritz:  Zu  der 

Griech.  Totenmahlrelie/s,  in  Mittheil.,  1896. 

*  Od.,  4  :  563-7.  6  Hel.,  1676-7. 

'  And.,  1260-2;  Bac,  1338-9.         ^  And.,  1262  ;  /.  T.,  436;  see  Bac,  1361-2. 
»  Farnell:  Gk.  Cults,  I,  30;  see  Hesiod:  Works  and  Days,  169  ;  Pindar,  Ol, 
2,  70-     (I  owe  these  references  to  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Farnell.) 
^"^  Lines  1135-47;  see  Rohde,  p.  200,  for  further  refs. 


)/ 


ir 


-4  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [74 

Homer  calls  Hades'  ^vUprm>  Kpare,«,io,  and  the  country  itself 
wide-gated.'  The  Tragedians  often  mention  the  gates  of 
Hades,3  and  as   guardian  of  these,  the  dog.     Sophocks  Calls 

'Aidov  rplKpavw  OKvT^ie,  aizpoafrnxov  repag, 

and  describes  him  as  couching  at  the  gate  of  Hades,'  where 
Hermes  is  implored  to  keep  him  quiet.  Admetus «  calls  h.m 
,  nMrc^of  «W;  and  .,^  he  always  is  in  Horner;^  whence  Pau- 
sanias'  argues  with  much  force  that  he  was  not  originally  a 
dog  but  more  probably  a  serpent,  as  «,<.«.  is  a  term  for  any 

fierce  beast.    In  the  vase  paintings,  especially  the  later  ones, 

he  appears  frequently  as  a  three-headed  dog,  and  that  type 
had  probably  become  fixed  before  the  Vth  century  In  the 
Tragedians  he  figures  chiefly  as  the  captive  of  Herakles  m  h.s 
famous  visit  to  the  underworld.'  On  the  tombstones  we  do 
not  find  the  three-headed  monster;  and  though  a  dog  often 
appears,-  it  is  probably  the  pet  of  the  household  or  the  com- 
panion of  the  hunter,  and  not  the  savage  guardian  of  the 
lower  regions.  .     ,    ,        t,  i 

The  only  other  dweller  of  the  land  of  the  dead  whom  Foly- 
gnotus  introduces  into  his  paintings  is  the  horrid  demon 
Eurynomus,  who,  according  to  Pausanias."  is  not  mentioned  in 
the  literature  up  to  that  time  and  may  be  an  allegorical  figure. 
But  the  Tragedians  tell  us  that  Erebus  had  other  mhabitants. 
There  dwelt  Night,"  whose  anger  even  Zeus  feared ; '3  and  her 
daughters  the  Moirai ; '-  and  those  other  daughters,  the  dread- 

1  £?</.,  11:277-  '//.,23=74. 

>M^J..^^3^■,eial.  *  Track,  mi-i. 

»  O.  C,  I56S-78.  •^^,360- 

'  See  Iwauowitsci,  pp.  IO3-5.  "  /'««*•.  3  =  ^5  :  4-5- 

»  H.  M.,  24-5 ;  et  al. 

i»  Conte,  PI.  23,  28,  130  (no.  677),  et  al.  oft. 

"/•flBJ.,  10:28:7.  "On,  174-6- 

«  //.,  14 :  259-6..  "  P""""'  ^-  ^•'  '•  *'-'• 


75]  THE  OTHER   H^ORLD  75 

ful  Keres,  of  whom  we  hear  so  much  in  Homer,'  and  whom 
Megara  pictures  her  sons  as  marrying,'  and  whom  later  Lyssa 
says  Herakles  is  calling  up  by  his  bellowing.'    The  Sirens, 

though  not  actually  dwellers  in  the  other  world,  are  by  Homer 
placed  on  the  way  thither ;  *  and  from  their  frequent  represen- 
tations on  tombstones  from  the  Vlth  century  down,'  and  their  ^^ 
office  of  carrying  souls  as  depicted  on  the  Harpy  Tomb,* 
they  may  have  shared  with  Charon  the  duty  of  transporting 
the  souls  of  the  dead  to  Hades.  Euripides  mentions  them  as 
Xi^ovdf  /c(5/5ai,  and  singers  of  mournful  songs.7  Nemesis  was 
another  daemon  closely  connected  with  the  dead,  ready  to  re- 
sent any  insulting  word  regarding  them.^  The  Sphinx  was 
sent  up  from  Hades,9  and  had  a  fitting  place  on  the  tomb." 
Another  uncomfortable  neighbor  was  lambe  or  Baubo,  men- 
tioned in  the  Frogs,  whom  M.  Heuzey "  supposes  to  be  the 
antitype  of  "the  numerous  caricatures  of  old  women  and 
nurses  found  among  the  terra-cottas  placed  about  the  dead." 
A  more  prominent  figure  is  Hecate,  who,  though  not  men- 
tioned in  Homer,  is  one  of  the  chief  characters  on  the  vases  of 
the  IVth  century.     Hesiod  first  mentions  her  as  a  victim  of 

the  anger  of  Artemis,  w^hose  follower  and  chthonian  double 
she  became;  and  Farnell  ^*  thinks  she  was  of  Phrygian  origin 
and  came  into  Athens  about  the  middle  of  the  Vlth  century. 
Before  the  Peloponnesian  War,  her  image  was  placed  at  the 
doors  of  the  Athenians  to  avert  evil.'3  She  presided  over 
graves,  and  her  images  stood  at  crossroads  to  keep  ghosts 
down.     "The  character  of  Hecate  YJ^L6ovx<Ky  the  guardian  of 


»  Buchhohy  III.  a,  318-21.  » H,  M,,  480-3. 

*H.  M.,  870.  *  Od.,  12:  39-46. 

*  Come,  35,  94,  et  al.  •  Collignon  :  Hist.  Sc.  Gr.,  I,  261—5. 

"^  Hel.,  167-71.  ^  S.  El.y  792,  1467  ;  see  Farnell,  II,  488-93. 

•  Phoen.,  807-11.  1®  Come,  97,  10,  et  al. 

**  Quoted  by  F.  Lenormant,  s.  v.  Gephyrismoi,  in  Dar.  et  Sag.,  IV. 

^^  Farm II,  II,  507  (quoting  Strabo,  473),  508.                ^^  Fame II,  II,  p.  509. 


'1 


76  D£A  T/f  AXD  BURIAL  IX  A TTIC  TRACED  Y  [76 

the  gate,  is  shown  by  the  key  which  appears  xn  the  hands  of 
many  of  her  figures,  and  possibly  tliis  alludes  not  only  to  the 
gate  of  the  house  and  the  city  but  to  the  gate  of  hell,  which 

Bhc  might  be  jjupj^oscd  to  keep,  as  the  key  U  known  to  have 
been  also  the  badge  of  Hades."  In  Caria  there  was  an  annual 
iMtival  of  the  key  in  honor  of  Zeus  and  Hecate  his  wife." 
SophoclcH  >  represents  her  with  her  head  crowned  with  oak 
leaver  and  serpents.  Alcamenes  was  the  first  to  give  her 
three  heads  and  three  bodies.3  To  this  triple  Hecate  living  in 
the  midst  of  infernal  monsters,  the  whip  is  often  given  to 
maintain  order  among  the  shades.* 

'     In  the  Tragedians  Hccalc  is  confused  with  Artemis ' 

and  with  Persephone.^ 

She  is  the  mistress  iA  spells  invoked  by  Medea ;'  and,  ruling 
over  journeys  by  ^y  and  night,  the  Chorus^  implore  her  to 
aid  Crcusa  in  poisoning  Ion.  She  sends  ghosts''  and  madness;- 
and,  as  in  the  later  vase-paintingn,  she  carries  the  torch  at  the 
marriage  of  the  soul  to  Hades.'* 

The  only  daemons  whom  Buchhok  will  admit  into  the  circle 
of  the  chthonians  with  Hades  and  Persephone  are  the  Erinyes." 
Aeschylus  calls  them  daughters  of  Night »  and  dwellers  of 
Tarunis  H  but  Sophocks  calls  them  children  of  Earth  and 


'  FarmtK  H*  $01-12.  556^  ^Ol. 

•^\  /^ira  Sik  X>«r.  #/  S»/.,  IV,  p.  1156. 
»/)**<•<?.,  109  »ow  •/«».  104^ 

t-l/M:.W-7-  i/m.  IC4*.S«- 

"  7^.,  3»3-4;  Mm.  /if/./,.  VI.  /Y.  4^  B  ;  //  a/. 

i^BucAA^h,  III.  •.  34S-5«:  "I-  ^  3*^ 

w  Emmi,,  ^21-2,  /r  cL  »•  £*"»*  7«-J. ''  «^ 


'&A.  490. 


jyl  THE  OTHER  WORLD  77 

Darkness.*  r«f  r,  «i  s**rtv  c^w^  Aeschylus  is  fond  of  using 
their  name  in  connection  with  evil,  as  when  he  calls  Helen  an 
Erinys  of  bridal  lamentation.'  or  Tydcus. '^h^^^  ^^r^  ;>  the 

destruction  of  war  he  calls.  T«.mti  ^M  'E^«*w.^  They  are  called 
»A^>  and  K^*  and  «)itTrup.'  and  they  ^cni  to  have  pat  taken 
of  the  nature  of  all  of  these.*  They  were  black  in  color* 
MthEmii  ff  'IV-fcf ,  like  iywm  *i\fr,-  angry  dogs,  and  from  their 

eyes  distilled  blood."  The  Priestess  of  Delphi  describes 
them:"  **  A  wondrous  troop  of  women  sits  sleeping  in  the 
seats,  though  not  women  but  Gorgons  I  call  them  .  .  .  wing- 
less and  black  in  appearance,  abominable  in  kind.  And  they 
snore  with  unapproachable  breath,  and  from  their  eyes  they 
diHtil  hateful  violence.  Their  dress  !s  fit  to  wear  neither  at  the 
images  of  the  gods  nor  in  the  dwellings  of  men."  They  are 
mad.  and  are  woven  about  with  crowding  serpents."^  It  is  no- 
tkeable  that  though  in  the  Ckciphorof  and  the  other  plays  they 
are  visible  to  Orc$t«  only,  in  the  Eumenides  they  arc  visible 
to  all.  as  is  necessary  from  the  nature  of  the  play.  In  Sopho- 
cles they  are  many  Iwndcd  and  many- footed.'*  and  he  speaks 
of  the  twin-fury ."5  as  though  there  were  but  two.  Euripides 
says  there  arc  three  f  and  his  description  differs  a  little  from 

that  of  Aeschylus:"  ••  Do  you  not  j»cc  thiu  t»n»kc  of  Hade*, 
that  she  wishes  to  slay  me>  with  horrid  vipers  fringed  against 
me  ?  And  breathing  forth  from  her  garments  fire  and  murder, 
die  beats  with  her  wings^  bearing  my  mother  in  her  arms,  a 


•  o.  C%  40,  106. 

•  Srf,.  5T4- 

»  Enm.^  417. 

» Or..  154^ 

^  Ai,,  A,<yy-^\  rt  aL 

»  CJU,,  1058L 

»  £9(m.^  in  \  ^^  i04»-50, 

*^S.  EL,i<ax 


■  A^.,  749. 

•A^.,^$**f^' 

•  £.  EL,  i2S2;0.  71,47^ 

•Set  /nuncwiUfA^  pp^  95^»  '*^'  ci«l»«<*- 

»  CA^,  1054, 
»  £mm,  4^6. 

MCV..411I. 


"  /.  T:,  3S5-V0:  tta  Or,,  asS-^i  ^  *'» 


II 


78  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  r-g 

rocky  mass,  that  she  may  throw  it  upon  me!"  The  effect  on 
their  victim  was  what  might  be  expected.     Orestes  has  fits  of 

madness,  eats  no  food  nor  indulges  in  the  bath ;  and  though 

he  has  lucid  intervals,  in  these  he  weeps  and  laments.'  He 
could  not  have  endured  this  torture  long,  if  Apollo  had  not 
lent  him  arrows  wherewith  he  might  gain  respite." 

We  are  most  impressed  with  the  function  of  the  Erinyes  ta 
haunt  a  matricide,  since  this  is  the  leading,  or  at  least  a 
prominent  theme  in  no  less  than  three  plays,  Eumenides^ 
Orestes  and  Iphigeneia  in  Tauris ;  and  comes  as  a  climax  inta 
the  Choephoroe  and  Euripides*  Electra  (though  not  in  Sopho- 
cles'); in  all  of  which  Orestes  is  tortured  for  a  morally  right 
action,  since  it  is  bidden  by  the  purest  of  the  gods,  his  natural 
instinct  struggling  against  the  divine  command.  Like  angry 
dogs  they  follow  him  always,3  sucking  his  blood  till  he  be- 
comes a  shadow,^  and  threatening  to  take  him  alive  to  Hades 
and  torture  him  there.s  They  protest  in  the  Eumenides  that 
they  punish  only  kindred  blood,^  but  in  the  Choephoroe  the 
blood  of  Aegisthus  is  a  third  draught  for  the  Erinys  ^  who 
avenges  the  stains  on  the  house  of  Agamemnon.^    In  the 

Septem  they  come  at  the  curse  of  Oedipus  to  slay  his  sons;«> 
but  none  feel  their  presence  as  does  the  matricide  Orestes. 
Otherwise  they  are  good  and  kind,"  but  fear  of  them  keeps 
men  from  murder  and  evil-doing." 

In  Sophocles  their  mission  is  somewhat  different.  They  do 
not  fall  on  Orestes  at  all ;  but  Clytaemnestra  fears  them,"  and 
Electra  implores  them  with  the  other  chthonians  to  help  her 
and  her  brother  in  their  enterprise ;  '3  and  says  that  the  slaying 


I  Or.,  34-45,  et  al.  «  Or.,  268-70. 

»  Cko.,  924;  Eum.,  75-7;  et  al.  * Eum.,  264-5,  3^2,  305. 

5  Eum.,  267-8.  «  Eum.,  210,  604-5. 

7  CAo.,  577-8.  8  cAo.,  651 ;  ^/  aL  oft. 

'  -^^A*  720-S,  et  al.  10  Eum.,  313-5,  895  ;  *S>/.,  699-701. 

II  Eum.,  494-524.  "  S.  EL,  275-6.  w  S.  EL,  1 10-7  ;  et  aL 


j^-\  THE  OTHER   WORLD  -9 

of  Aegisthus  will  destroy  the  twin-fury,'  as  if  the  sacrifice  of 
the  really  guilty  man  would  stay  their  anger.  Oedipus  in- 
vokes the  Erinyes  to  carry  out  his  curses  on  his  sons'  for 

their  harsh  treatment  of  him.  But  outrage  on  the  dead  as 
well  as  unjust  death  claimed  their  attention,  as  is  shown  by 
the  threat  3  to  Creon  and  to  the  enemies  of  Aias,  as  well  as 
those  to  the  slayers  of  Laius  and  Herakles. 

In  Euripides,  again,  though  the  Erinyes  are  not  limited  to 
the  chastisement  of  kindred  slaughter,*  we  have  the  tortures  of 
the  matricide  Orestes  with  added  detail.  In  the  Choephoroe, 
the  Erinyes  sieze  him   immediately,  but  in  the  Orestes^  they 

do  not  come  upon  him  until  at  night  when  he  is  watching  be- 
side his  mother's  body.  In  the  Eumenides,  Athene  by  her 
judgment  and  her  persuasions  frees  him ;  but  in  Euripides  she 
drives  them  away  with  her  Gorgon-headed  shield,^  and  instead 
of  departing  satisfied  and  with  blessings,  they  rush  in  terror 
into  the  chasm,^  and  do  not  all  acquiesce  in  Athene's  decision.^ 
It  is  Sophocles  who  draws  the  picture  of  the  Grove  of  the 
Eumenides,  one  of  the  finest  bits  of  natural  scenery  in  the 
Tragedians.  Here  among  the  bay,  the  olive  and  the  vine,  the 
nightingales  sing  sweetly,  undisturbed  by  human  sound,  and  a 
limpid  stream  flows  through  the  untrodden  grass.9  Expiation 
for  entering  their  grove  must  be  made  by  pouring  a  triple 
libation  of  spring  water  and  honey  from  a  cup  wreathed  with 
fresh-shorn  lamb's  wool;  thrice  nine  branches  of  olive  must  be 
laid  on  the  place;  and  after  a  prayer  calling  them  Eumenides 
and  spoken  inaudibly,  the  trespasser  must  slip  away  without 
looking  back.^° 


» s.  EL,  1080.  *  o.  c,  1391, 1433-4. 

*Ant.,   1074-6;  Ai.,  835-44:   O.  T.,  47 '"^  5   Track.,  808-9. 

*Med.,  1389  ;  E.  EL,  1546-8.  »  Or.,  401-2,  408. 

•  E.  EL,  1252-7.  "^  E'  ^^M  1270-2. 

8  /.   T.,  970-1  ;  see  940-86.  •  O.  C,  16-8,  124-32,  I5S-60. 

M  O.  C,  466-90. 


So  DEA  TH  AND  B  URIA  L  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [go 

The  Eumenides  had  a  regular  cult  at  Athens,  sharing  in  the 

worship  of  Athene  in  the  abode  of  Erechtheus,  receiving  the 
first  fruits  of  the  sacrifices,  honored  with  blazing  torches,  with 
processions  of  youths  and  women  in  purple  robes,  with  burnt- 
offerings  and  songs  and  libations/  And  in  the  statues  which 
the  Athenians  erected  of  them  there  was  nothing  horrible.* 
They  were  worshiped  also  at  the  hearth  of  the  home  with 
wineless  soothing  libations.3 

The  idea  of  death  was  never  absent  from  the  mind  of  the 
V  Greek.    Turn  where  he  would,  engage  in  what  occupation  or 

pleasure  or  duty  he  saw  fit,  the  eyes  of  the  dead  and  of  the 
mighty  gods  of  the  dead  were  upon  him.  Sacrifices  and 
prayers  to  the  deities  of  high  heaven  might  be  slighted  or 
omitted,  but  those  to  the  x'^^viol  never.  Their  power  arose 
from  the  ground  on  which  he  trod,  and  penetrated  even  to  his 
dreams  and  to  his  most  secret  plans ;  it  dogged  every  step  of 
his  life,  and  extended  into  the  remotest  future.  The  Olympians 
were  a  gay  and  joyous  folk,  content  that  mankind  should  be 

reasonably  happy  and  prosperous,  since  this  was  to  their  in- 
terest ;  and  however  vindictive  they  might  be,  their  vengeance 
of  necessity  stopped  with  the  dissolution  of  soul  from  body. 
But  they  of  the  lower  world  were  ever  envious  and  grudging 
against  him  who  enjoyed  the  blessings  they  had  lost,  regard- 
ing him  with  a  vigilance  unforgetting,  unrelenting  and  unre- 
mitting, not  to  be  put  off  with  excuses  or  appeased  with  paltry 
offerings.  Man,  the  living  man,  owed  them  a  heavy  rent  for 
the  brief  lease  of  his  tenement,  and  they  exacted  payment  to 

the  uttermost  farthing.  What  wonder  that  Plato's  teaching 
fell  on  charmed  but  unbelieving  ears;  that  Stoics  and  Epi- 
cureans alike,  finding  the  burden  too  great  to  be  borne,  de- 
\/  clared  there  is  no  hereafter;  that  the  populace  seized  upon 
every  new  orgy,  and  welcomed  every  foreign  god  of  the  dead, 

1  Eum.,  804-7,  833-6,  854-7,  1022  flf.,  1033-47. 


\' 


81 


THE  OTHER  WORLD 


[81 


like  the  mystic  Dionysus  or  the  solemn  deep-eyed  Serapis ;  or 
that  of  all  the  gods,  most  popular  by  far  was  Asklepios  the 

healer ;  for  he  prolonged  man's  little  span  of  life  and  for  a  brief 
moment  held  back  the  curtain  which  must  envelop  him. 
Rightly  was  the  disembodied  soul  named  okl^,  for  it  was  the 
shadow  which  the  Greek  could  never  elude  or  escape. 


•^ 


/: 


yf-t, 


^  Paus.y  1 :  28:  6. 


*  Eum.^  106-9. 


VITA 


Lucia  Catherine  Graeme  Grieve  was  born  of  Scotch  parents 
in  Dublin,  Ireland,  April  30,  1862.  Her  early  education  was 
received  in  Mrs.  J.  T.  Benedict's  French  and  English  School 

in  New  York  city.    In  1878  she  entered  Wellesley  College  in 

the  Academic  Department,  and  in  1883  received  the  A.  B. 
degree.  For  the  next  ten  years  she  was  engaged  in  teaching 
in  preparatory  schools  and  colleges.  In  1893  she  received 
the  A.  M.  degree  from  Wellesley  College  for  work  in  Greek 
and  Roman  Philosophy.  From  1893  till  1898  she  was  a 
student  in  Columbia  University,  her  subjects  being  Greek, 
Sanskrit  and  Hebrew,  under  the  direction  of  Professors  Mer- 
riam.  Perry  and  Wheeler,  Jackson  and  Gottheil.     The  summer 

of  1894  was  spent  in  the  British  Museum  in  the  study  of  the 
Greek  Vases,  under  the  general  guidance  of  Prof  A.  C.  Mer- 
riam.  During  the  year  1 896-7,  she  attended  courses  in  Oxford 
University,  England,  given  by  Prof  Percy  Gardner,  Mr.  Haigh, 
Mr.  Sidgwick,  Prof  Macdonnell,  and  Canon  Driver. 

(83) 


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